choices
by Wains Domain
Summary: Ulrich feeling that his life is falling apart makes a choice that will change everything. starts off a Y x W but eventually becomes Y x U
1. chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else in this story except my idea

In the control room of the factory Ulrich was sitting down in front of the super computer finishing the final touches of his program that would change his life forever. Ulrich didn't really want to run the program, but even though his life would be over once he did it would give the others a chance to live in peace without fear of Xana attacking. Ulrich had been thinking about doing this for a long time and as one might guess there were many factors to the choice Ulrich was about to make, Aelita anti-virus making no headway, Jeremie going afar as to use the head device to increase his brain power and instead ending up putting him in the hospital, not to mention all the time they were all almost killed by one of Xana traps, but despite all this the most important reason happened a month ago.

_One month ago_

_Ulrich, Jeremie, and Odd were waiting outside at their groups' bench, they waiting for Aelita and Yumi to show up but they were unusually late today. While they waited the three boys passed the time by talking about games, food, and good strategies to defeating Xana. A few minutes before the bell was about ring Aelita showed up, after she got there and said hi to the guys she then asked "has anyone seen Yumi yet?" The guys all shook their heads no and Ulrich got up and said "well I'm going to go for a quick walk before class, if I see Yumi I'll tell her you guys said hi." As the group said their goodbyes and broke apart Ulrich found himself walking towards the main gate to see if Yumi was just running late or not, sure enough as Ulrich came within eyesight of the gate he saw Yumi and William talking. _

_ Ulrich first thought was to run over there and break it up, but something told him to just sit and watch. They just stood their talking and laughing for a few minutes before William grabbed Yumi chin and pulled her in for a kiss, and Yumi kissed him right back. Ulrich felt hot tears running down his face as he watched the girl he loved kiss a man who he swore was his worst enemy, as Ulrich was about to leave his cell phone rang, he looked at the I.D. and saw that it was Jeremy. After wiping the tears from his eyes and getting his voice back to normal he answered his phone "what's up Jeremy?" "Xana is launching his attack Odd, Aelita, and I our way to the factory, call Yumi and tell her to meet us their"._

_ Ulrich visibly flinched but still he said, "Okay I'll call her." He ended his call with Jeremy and quickly called Yumi before he lost the nerve to do it, as the phone rang Ulrich watched Yumi put her finger to her mouth telling William to be quiet, then she answered the phone. "Yeah Ulrich what's up?" Ulrich quickly said to just meet him and the others at the factory for a mission, after telling Yumi this he left not wanting to see anymore. _

_ Later that day after the mission on Lyoko was done and over with Ulrich was in his room laying on his bed, tears running down his face to him this was one of the worst days in his life, he didn't even know why he was still alive, his parents didn't care about him, his grades were crap and his friends were to busy with their own lives to really notice that his tough guy attitude was nothing more than illusion to hide his own pain, now with Yumi going out with William Ulrich didn't know what to do, part of him wanted to just go get a knife, slit his wrist and end his life once and for all. While Ulrich sat in his room contemplating whether or not to go ahead with his suicide attempt a thought occurred to him, if he were to go through with his suicide attempt then the others would be down one fighter on Lyoko, a thought occurred to Ulrich and it was one he wanted to investigate. Ulrich left the dorm and headed to the factory, when he got their he accessed the super computer, after a few hours of looking through various files he eventually found what he was looking for, the code in Aelita that allows her to shutdown towers. _

_ That night while Ulrich laying bed debating on a course of action the only thought that was running through his mind was ' no matter what I do I'm going to hurt them, if I kill myself everyone will spend days grieving me and for all I know Xana could take advantage and steal Aelita memories and destroy the world, but if he went through with his other choice they would grieve but they would also get a chance to live out the rest of the days of their lives in peace without fear of Xana. The next day Ulrich began putting his plan into action, during lunch Ulrich slipped out of Kadic went to the factory and began writing the program that would bring at least some peace back to the world even if he has to fight the war for the rest of time._

_**Present Day**_

Ulrich began running a test and was glad to see a green check mark on the screen telling him everything was ready, Ulrich activated the scanner timer then entered the elevator and went down to the scanner. Ulrich entered the scanner and waited for the door to close. Up in the super computer room the timer on the screen reached zero. The doors in front of Ulrich closed and before they closed all the way Ulrich simply said "goodbye".

**In Lyoko**

When the virtualization was complete Ulrich found himself in the forest dressed in his regular Lyoko uniform. After a minute of orienting himself he began to walk towards the deep parts of the sector, he only had a short amount of time before Xana next attack would begin and he wanted to make sure he was ready to stop it.

**The real world**

In the halls of the boys floor dormitory Odd was walking towards his and Ulrich dorm. Odd was a little concerned as to why Ulrich missed all of his classes since he was already gone when Odd had woken up this morning. Odd was running his mind through various reasons as to why Ulrich didn't come to class when he opened up his and Ulrich door, " hey Ulrich get up or Mrs. Hertz is going to...kill...you".

Odd could barley right his sentence as he entered the room and not only didn't find Ulrich but saw that his stuff was all packed up and gone. Odd walked over to their desk and saw an envelope with the words 'gang' written on it. Odd grabbed the envelope and ran to the gang bench where Jeremy anthelia were waiting. When Odd approached the two he quickly said, "where's Yumi? "Jeremy shrugged his shoulders and said " she left saying she had to be somewhere important and that she would catch up with us later, why what's going on?" Odd told them about his Ulrich room being deserted and the envelope, before anyone could decide what to do the bell rang telling them that they had to report to their next class. Jeremy quickly said " look lets all just go to class now, after school we'll all meet in my dorm and we'll open the letter and see if it can shed some light on the situation with Ulrich." Odd and Aelita both nodded and while they headed off to class Odd text message Yumi telling her to meet them in Jeremie dorm.

After school came to slowly for the gang as they finally were able to meet in Jeremie dorm, after Odd informed Yumi of what he found in their dorm they all decided to open letter. Jeremie read it out loud " goodbye everyone, good luck to you Odd in both his studies and movie making, good luck to you Jeremie in your research of Aelita anti-virus, good luck to you Aelita in your life on Earth, and finally good luck to you Yumi with William may you both live happily together, I'm sorry but I have to do what I have to do." When Jeremie got done reading the note everyone just looked stunned, no one could believe that Ulrich had just left; everyone was crying not knowing what they were going to do. Yumi tried to call his cell phone, but an automated voice came up telling her that the number was disconnected.

Yumi ran from the dorm room, she ran across campus still crying until she found William. Yumi practically launched herself in William arms, she just kept mumbling ' he's gone and he's never coming back', she kept repeating this line over and over like a mantra. When Yumi seemed to calm down a bit William said " babe what's wrong?" After a minute Yumi found her voice and said " Ulrich he's gone and I don't know if he's going to come back." Yumi started crying again as soon as she finished the sentence, William who was at first panicked when he saw Yumi instantly relaxed when he found out that Ulrich was gone, this news brought a big smile to his face but he made sure that Yumi wouldn't see it if she lifted her head. Back in Jeremie dorm Aelita, Jeremie, and Odd had just managed to calm down and Aelita asked a question " what does this mean for Lyoko, without Ulrich what are we going to do were going to down one fighter, and can we just do it with just the three of us?" No one had an answer. Jeremie looked up and said " I don't know what were going to do, but were going to have to keep fighting Xana no matter what, we're just going to have to hope we can do it without him." Aelita and Odd both nodded their heads to what Jeremie had just said.

That night Jeremie woke up to sound of his laptop beeping, he grabbed his glasses and opened his laptop, the screen showed him an activated tower. Jeremie grabbed his phone and was getting ready to call the others when all of a sudden the tower deactivated. Jeremie ran a super scan and I confirmed that the tower was now deactivated; Jeremie simply shrugged his shoulders and went back to sleep trying to think of what Xana was up to this time.

Lyoko 

Ulrich had just closed out the screen of the activated tower, he was glad it hadn't taken him too long to get and he was sure Xana couldn't have gone through with whatever it was he was planning. Ulrich jumped from the upper platform to the lower platform of the tower and exited it. Once he was outside he took a deep breath of virtualized air from the desert region, he then looked to the sky and said to himself ' now the personal war begins Xana.'

AN

R&R tell me what you guy think.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else in this story

Chapter 2

Lyoko 

Deep in the forest region Ulrich sat in a tower meditating, he would do this everyday for several hours everyday as he emptied his mind of all thoughts good and bad and focused his mind entirely on his task as the guardian of Lyoko. After a while Ulrich got up, after stretching a bit he exited the tower to begin the next part of his training. Ulrich stood now facing the tower; he bent down into his running stance and then sprinted up to the top of the tower.

Once he reached the top he drew his sword and then jumped towards a nearby tree, once he landed on the tree he made a quick slash then jumped to the next one. Ulrich did this for a while before finally allowing himself to land on the ground; once he landed he began the final part of his daily training. Holding his sword out in front of him Ulrich began what looked like a dance that consisted of spinning, kicks, slicing, and stabbing.

When Ulrich was done he put his sword away and stood in the same spot in the middle of the small clearing just staring off into space. It had been six months since Ulrich had come to the digital world and he was happy with the knowledge that the others hadn't been here in six months either letting him know that he was doing a good job. Ulrich took a deep breath; despite the fact that he was no longer apart of the gangs lives anymore he was happy to know that they were all finally getting the peace they deserved. Ulrich was then suddenly shaken from his thoughts by a beeping sound coming from the gauntlet on his right wrist, he ran his hand over the gauntlet and it changed into a small computer strapped to his wrist.

Ulrich flipped the computer open and saw a screen with his position and three unidentified monster circling around him. Ulrich calmly turned around until he went all the way around but he saw nothing, they he looked up into the trees and saw them, they were basically identical to the horror monster in James Finson film that Xana had possessed except their tales were long and had spikes all around them, and in the middle of their heads was the Xana sign.

Ulrich watched as the alien monsters jump from tree to tree occasionally snarling at him, when one came in front of Ulrich it began to snarl at him but then Ulrich noticed his mouth become entirely red. As Ulrich began to jump backwards a laser shot out of the aliens mouth and hit the spot that Ulrich had just been occupying. Ulrich saw out of the corner of his eyes the other tow aliens push themselves off their respective trees and lunge right for Ulrich back. As Ulrich feet touched the ground he instantly super jumped towards the alien to his lift, as Ulrich approached the alien he stuck both his legs and kicked the alien right in the face, Ulrich then pushed off and super jumped towards the other alien.

As the space between Ulrich and the alien closed Ulrich prepared to finish the first of three, but as his plan was about to come to fruition a web from the one he just kicked clung to his back and snapped backwards sending Ulrich sailing through the air. As Ulrich was sailing through the air he quickly spun himself around and cut the web from his back. The alien that had first shot at Ulrich now let out a volley of shots at him. Ulrich saw the shots coming out of the corner of his eye and quickly brought his sword up and volleyed each of the shots safely away from his body.

When Ulrich landed he turned towards the alien that dragged him and found it lunging right at him, Ulrich super jumped backwards following the alien path and when the alien had come underneath him he threw his sword down at the alien successfully piercing the Xana symbol. Ulrich not wanting to waste anytime quickly super sprinted towards his sword and ran up the tree after the alien who was trying to snipe him. The alien kept shooting shot after shot at Ulrich in the hope of knocking him off the tree but the young warrior just kept blocking each one, realizing that he had to move the alien quickly jumped across the clearing landing on the trunk of a tree.

Ulrich quickly super jumped off the branch the alien had just occupied in the direction of the alien. The alien realizing Ulrich was coming after readjusted himself and launched himself back towards Ulrich. As two closed in on each other Ulrich adjusted his sword so that it was pointed backwards away from the alien. Like jousting knights in the middle ages the two combatants continued to close in on one another, as they reached the middle point Ulrich slashed forward with his sword cutting the alien head in half and leaving nothing but exploding pixels.

When Ulrich came to the tree in front of him he drove his sword halfway into the tree so it could support his weight. Ulrich began scanning the area for the final alien when he heard a snarl from above; he looked up and watch the alien slam into his with such force that it forced his sword out of the tree, as the two combatants sped towards the ground Ulrich knew their was nothing he could do to change the position he was in. when the two combatants hit the ground the virtualized dirt began to pile up behind Ulrich as the alien weight slid him across the ground, as the two combatants slid Ulrich slammed his feet with all his strength into the aliens torso catapulting him through the air.

The alien hit the ground and quickly launched itself back at Ulrich. Ulrich had just got back to his when the alien once again tackled him to the ground. Ulrich found himself in the worst situation, he was pinned beneath the alien, his free arm pinned to his chest, his sword arm unable to move to hit the alien Xana symbol, and was constantly moving his head to avoid a laser blast right to is face. While Ulrich was shaking his head from left to right the alien brought his tail readying it to strike. Ulrich had just moved his head to the right to avoid another laser blast when he saw the alien tail shoot downwards aiming for his face.

Ulrich quickly moved his head to the left and avoided just in time to feel the spear like end of the alien tale brush past his face and plant itself the ground. Ulrich not wasting his chance brought his sword around and cut the end of the alien tail off, as the alien roared in pain its head back in pain Ulrich brought his sword around and rammed it through the underside of the alien skull and was happy when he felt his blade pierce the alien Xana symbol and explode.

Ulrich laid their breathing heavily for a couple of minutes before he collapsed to the ground. This was the most physical fight he had yet and he was sure it wasn't going to be the last. Ulrich was getting ready to head back to the tower when a beeping sound alerted him to the activation of a tower. Ulrich summoned his computer and after a few minutes of scanning it located the activated tower in the desert region. Ulrich entered the codes and summoned his overbike, after he got on the bike he headed towards the transportation tower that would take him to the desert sector.

**Real world**

Jeremie sat on the bench looking at the latest super scan from his laptop. It displayed a screen that told him a tower is active in the desert sector. Under normal circumstances Jeremie would be panicking and would start calling the others telling them to prep for a mission, but things weren't normal anymore. Jeremie sighed over the past six months Xana as launched so many false alarms that Jeremie rarely ever checked his laptop anymore.

Since Ulrich disappeared six months ago things for the gang had been up and down. After an exhaustive investigation by the police and missing persons turned up nothing everyone just gave up on ever finding Ulrich, even his parents seemed disinterested in the situation when they came and filed a report with missing persons. Jeremie bench and stretched a little bit as he waited for Aelita to join him so they could go out, since they had a lot of free time on their hands they started dating a few months ago. Jeremie began pacing in front of the bench he then stopped and looked over himself real quick. He was wearing a dark blue collard shirt, a pair of dark blue khakis, and black boots.

When Jeremie resumed his pacing thoughts of Ulrich came up, Jeremie couldn't believe that Ulrich was gone he missed his friend very much. Jeremie thoughts were interrupted when he hear " hey Einstein what are you doing?" Jeremie looked up and saw Odd coming towards him. Odd was dressed in his usual clothes but what most people still aren't used to were the books he carried underneath his arms.

Since Ulrich disappearance Odd began to take his studies seriously and now he wasn't too far behind Jeremie and Aelita in g.p.a, he was still a kidder, loved techno music and all the other things he liked to do but even now you could still see the sadness in his eyes from Ulrich disappearance. The two sat down and started talking about schoolwork and the upcoming dance as they waited for Aelita.

Lyoko 

Ulrich had just arrived in the desert sector and was heading as fast he could push the over bike towards the activated tower. A few minutes later the tower came into view, Ulrich stopped and smiled when all he saw was four crabs. Ulrich shook his head then said to himself ' Xana had way too much faith that those new monsters would beat me, this shouldn't take too long.' Ulrich punched the overbike into over drive and sped towards the crabs.

When Ulrich came into range the crabs each began to fire in an attempt to stop him but Ulrich kept weaving left and right till finally one of the crabs managed to hit Ulrich bike. Ulrich knew his overbike was about to devirtualize but he also knew he was close enough, Ulrich quickly brought his feet to his seat then he super jumped towards the crab in the middle. Not wanting to waste anytime Ulrich landed precisely on the crab Xana symbol and drove his sword right through it.

Before the crab could explode Ulrich jumped and ran towards the other middle crab. As Ulrich sprinted towards the crab he used his triangulate attack and surrounded the crab in the gold triangle, after a minute of running in a triangle Ulrich severed all four of the crab legs off then jumped on the crab and finished it.

Ulrich didn't have time to congratulate himself as the two remaining crabs opened fire on him. Ulrich deflected the initial shots then used his triplicate technique, as soon as the clones appeared Ulrich shouted "single file attack" and sprinted towards the crab in front of him, the clones of Ulrich sprinted as well and the three formed a single straight line. The three Ulrich sped toward the crab with the real Ulrich in front deflecting the crab attack.

When he was close enough the real Ulrich super jumped on top of the crab then super jumped again towards the tower, the other two Ulrich continued to super sprint toward the crab, the new lead Ulrich severed two of the crab legs, as it fell to the ground the last Ulrich ran his sword across the crab Xana symbol finishing it off. When Ulrich feet hit the tower he pointed himself towards the last crab and threw his sword with all his might then he sprinted down the tower. The crab tried to shoot Ulrich as he ran down the tower but it was oblivious to Ulrich incoming sword until it pierced the crab Xana symbol and killed it.

When Ulrich feet hit the ground he ran into the tower, as he approached the center of the platform he kneeled down then jumped straight up speeding through the air, in a matter of seconds Ulrich was on the top platform, he put his hand on the screen and was happy when a minute later the tower deactivated.

Real world 

Jeremy let out a happy sigh as he closed his laptop, during his and Odd conversation he checked the status of the tower and was happy to see that it was deactivated. Jeremie just wanted to know if this was part of some kind of an attack or was Xana malfunctioning. Jeremie pushed aside these thoughts when he thought of a question he wanted to ask Odd.

" So Odd do you miss going to Lyoko?" Odd didn't know how to respond, he did miss going to Lyoko, but he was also happy with the peace they had in the absence of any attacks, but he also missed Ulrich terribly and Lyoko held too many fond memories. Odd simply shrugged and said, " I do miss it, but I'm more happy with the peace we have." Jeremie smile and nodded his head in agreement with Odd statement.

At that moment Aelita showed up and said, " sorry I kept you waiting Jeremie, hey Odd." Jeremie and Odd turned and looked at Aelita, she was wearing a blue tang top that said 'sweet' on it, she also was wearing a black mini skirt and she had knee length high boots on. As Jeremie continued to stare Aelita just laughed, she grabbed his hand and began to guide him out of the school courtyard. Odd waved buy and told them to have fun, as Odd sat there he let his mind wander on what it would be like if Ulrich was their with them to join in on the peace they got.

Odd mind ran through the list of games, jokes and other things they could do with all the free time they would have, but the one thing Odd suspected would happen the most would be that Yumi would spend more time with them. Since Ulrich disappearance Yumi had not really been with the rest of them doing stuff like they used to, instead she spent all of her time with William. At first Odd thought this was because they were just staring to go out, but the more Odd thought about it the more he wondered if it had to do with Yumi feelings toward Ulrich, the ones she swore weren't there. Odd let out a deep sigh, he then grabbed his books and Jeremie laptop and began to head towards the boys dormitory with the intent on relaxing before he would begin his studies of tomorrow subjects.

Lyoko 

Ulrich exited the tower and immediately fused with the two clones, he went and picked up his sword and then began to walk back towards the transportation tower. Along the way his thoughts drifted back to his life on Earth, all the good times, the bad times, and a certain black haired Japanese goth girl. Ulrich felt virtual tears slide down his cheek as he thought about his love, about how much he missed her, how much he wanted to talk to her, and most of all see her smile, but regardless of his feelings he's happy to know that his sacrifice will allow her to have peace she deserves, even if she spends it with William. When Ulrich reached the transportation tower he entered it and began his travel back to the forest sector as planned to rest then get started on his training.

Real world 

Darkness had come for the people of France. It was the middle of the night, the time when most people in France were fast and sound asleep. Except for one young teenage girl. She stood by the window of her two-story house in her nightclothes as she looked upward toward the moon her hands locked together in prayer. This had become a nightly ritual since the day he disappeared, and since that day she had not had a peaceful nights rest, this girl was Yumi. No matter how much she enjoyed the peace they all had it was pointless without him their to join in on it, she would rather have eternal war if it meant he would return to fight it, the boy was Ulrich. Every night since his disappearance Yumi would make tow prayers, one for his safety and the other for his return. Since the second one had yet to be granted, she was hoping she was getting the first one. Despite all the happiness that surrounded her she couldn't bring herself to enjoy it, what was making it worse was that William her boyfriend was becoming more and more distant. Yumi finished her prayer then went to bed, tears in her eyes as she muttered the words 'sorry' over and over again.

AN

R&R thxs for all the great reviews and I'll try to update as fast as I can.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer :I don't own code Lyoko or anything else depicted in this story

Chapter 2

Lyoko 

Ulrich sat in the tower once again meditating. It had been two days since his encounter with the new alien monsters that Xana had created and since Xana seemed to be quiet he felt like spending extra time meditating. While Ulrich was meditating his thoughts began to drift back to his friends.

He wondered how they were doing, he also wondered if they miss him or if they had forgotten about him? Ulrich mind continued on its depressing course until another thought popped in to his mind. ' I wish there was a way for me to go to the real world without them knowing it's me.' While Ulrich did want to go back to the real world to see how everyone was doing he also knew that they would see him and then his plan would be ruined.

Ulrich tried to do the best he could to get rid of the curiosity he had but he couldn't. " I just wish I could see how they're all doing" he said. The moment he finished his statement a booming voice echoed through the tower saying " I think I can help you with that."

Real world 

Yumi was had just exited the shower and was now running around her room gathering her clothes for the day. After quickly getting dressed she grabbed her watch and checked the time, it read 9:30. Yumi swore to herself as she put the watch and ran out the door as fast as she can and headed towards the bus stop to catch the bus.

Even though it was Sunday and she would usually sleep in she had to get up early today for two reasons, one she had a date with William at 11:00 at the movie theater, and the second was that today was the six month anniversary since Ulrich disappeared. Although not legally official yet most people considered Ulrich dead, a few months ago a tombstone had been put up in the local cemetery for people so people could pay their respects to the young man.

Yumi boarded the bus and sat down, as the bus began to drive off Yumi began to cry a little as she thought about Ulrich and how much she truly missed him. A little while later the bus arrived at her stop that put her a few blocks away from the cemetery, Yumi got off and ran to the cemetery. When Yumi arrived she went to the store and bought a bouquet of flowers to be left on his grave. Yumi entered the graveyard and as she moved towards the stone that was laid out for Ulrich she looked around at other stones and noted with a sad note that Ulrich was one of the youngest people that had a stone in this cemetery. Yumi put the flowers she bought down and began to make a small prayer.

When Yumi was done she fell to her knees and began to cry, she remained in the same position crying and then she looked at the stone and said " I should've told you how I felt, I should've screamed it to let the whole world know, instead I was so worried about what everyone else thought so it seemed simpler just to go out with William. Yumi sat there for a few more minutes before she said her goodbyes and left to catch the bus again.

**Lyoko**

When Ulrich heard the voice that boomed through the tower he immediately rose to his feet and drew his sword. Ulrich began looking around for the owner of the voice when all of a sudden a white outline of a human appeared in front of him. Ulrich began to swing his sword when the being held out a hand and said "wait".

Ulrich wanted to swing his sword and kill what ever this thing was in front of him but something told him that he should listen to what it had to say. Ulrich lowered his sword and said, " go on". The figure nodded its head and said " to get straight to the point I want you to help me defeat Xana." Before Ulrich could even think about what the figure had just said he said, " why I've been doing a good job of keeping Xana at bay by myself."

The figure nodded its head and said, " Yes you have been doing a good job by yourself, but tell me something Ulrich aren't you tired of fighting this war by yourself, and didn't you just say ' I just wish I could see how everyone was doing?' Ulrich visibly flinched at the last part of the statement; taking a deep breath he said, " Go on I'm listening."

Real World 

Yumi had just gotten off the bus when she glanced at her watch and saw what time it was, Yumi mind shouted a curse as she ran the rest of the way to the theater where William was waiting. When Yumi got there all she saw was a pist off looking William. Yumi walked up to William and began to say sorry when William started shouting " where the hell have you been, your twenty minute lat you know I don't like to be kept waiting, so tell me what the hell were you doing that made you so damn late?"

Yumi felt the tears begin to come forward but she managed to hold them back and say "it's been six months today, six months since Ulrich disappeared." At soon as Yumi had finished her response William began to fume and started shouting " Ulrich this and Ulrich that, fine if your so hung up you can have him, as for me I'll just go full time with my other girlfriend." Yumi felt as if she had been slapped in the face, she stood there silently as William pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

After a minute William said " hey Emily, yeah listen come meet me at the movie theater, yeah I did but I finally got tired of her, yeah it's ok take your time don't rush, ok I'll see you when you get here, I love you too." Yumi couldn't take it anymore as she let the tears she had been holding back go streaming down her face; Yumi turned around and began running towards Kadic. William just stood their laughing as he waited for Emily to come.

Lyoko 

"You and the others are under the impression that Aelita has been infected with a virus, but that's not what actually is going on." Ulrich began to focus as the figure continued to speak. " What Xana has actually done is stolen a fragment of her memory, to make a long story short if we reunite Aelita with her memory fragment then she would be free and you could shut Xana down for good."

Ulrich stood in the same spot thinking about everything he was just told, but despite all the positive thoughts running through Ulrich mind one negative thought stood out the most, 'if I shutdown Xana I wouldn't have a purpose then'. Despite how much Ulrich knew it was a selfish reason to keep Xana awake he couldn't banish the thought to the back of his mind. Ulrich looked at the figure and said, " if you shutdown Xana then I'll lose my purpose, I'm sorry but I don't know what to do."

The being clenched what were probably its fist and said, " but don't you think it's about time that you return to the real world and most of all your friends?" At this statement Ulrich turned away and shouted in a sad voice, " my friends are doing fine with out me they don't need me!" Ulrich began to tremble at the amount of anger he was feeling, he then began to calm after he took a few deep breaths. While Ulrich was calming down the figure said, " then it's time for you to return to the real world so you can see how wrong you are.

Real World 

Yumi had just reached the gates of Kadic when she instantly saw Odd, Jeremy, and Aelita. Yumi did her best to clean up her face real quick then she began to walk towards the others. When Yumi reached them they were about to say hi when they saw her face and how red her eyes were, before they could say anything Yumi told them what had happened between her and William, as the three listened they responded at first with shock, then anger at the way William treated Yumi and the memory of their best friend Ulrich.

Odd began pacing back and forth saying " I'm going to find William and when I do…" before he could finish his sentence Yumi held up her hand and said " don't do anything Odd it's not worth it just let him go." Odd eventually calmed down and the four friends spent the day together, talking, planning, and more or less just having a great time, but then Yumi had to leave and began her walk home. After she left Jeremy, Odd, and Aelita all dropped their happy faces and sighed sadly.

After a few minutes of silence Odd said, "She'll never admit to it but she's hurting badly." Jeremy and Aelita both nodded their heads in agreement and Jeremy said, "she needs Ulrich, she won't admit it but she misses him and she feels a terrible guilt because she thinks it was her relationship with William that drove him away." While the three continued to talk a strange mist move about the ceiling of the room.

If either of the three were to look at the mist they would easily recognize it as the mist that Xana uses to posses people and objects, but the mist didn't try to posses them or any object it just floated their listening to the people below, then it just left. When Yumi reached her house she talked to her mother for a bit then she ate dinner and went to her room to let out the rest of the tears she had been holding in. A long while later Yumi mother came into her room to check up on her daughter. "Yumi dear is everything alright?" Yumi didn't respond, instead she turned away from her mother and brought the covers up closer to her head.

Yumi mother sat down on Yumi bed and continued to speak, " I'm sorry about what happened between you and William, but look on the bright side at least now you don't have to feel guilty when other boys are looking at you." Yumi still didn't respond. Yumi mother sighed and was almost out the door when she heard Yumi say, "I just miss him so much." Despite Yumi not saying a name her mother knew who she was talking about, her mother then responded "I know but don't worry I'm sure he will return soon." Yumi mother said goodnight and left.

Yumi was almost asleep when she heard her door open and her mother light footsteps walking inward. Yumi figured she might've left something in their from earlier and didn't bother to let her know she was still awake, as Yumi closed her eyes to go back to sleep she was surprised when she felt her mother hand stroke her cheek and she heard her mother say "I'm so sorry, I'll do everything I can to make things right I promise." Yumi had no idea what she was talking about, she just lay there and listen to her mom leave her room.

Lyoko 

Ulrich stood their gazing at the figure with a questioning gaze before he said, "how can you do that?" The figure crossed its arms and said, "I can activate this tower in order to pixelize you and send you out into the real world in the form of mist like Xana does." Ulrich debated this before saying "are their any risks involved?" The figure shook its head no and said "but we should do it now since Xana is not active and there are no monsters in the area, because once I activate this tower he'll be sending them to deactivate it in the hopes that I will exhaust my power while trying to keep it active."

Ulrich began to debate on this and then said, "I'll do it but juts one last question, what happens if the tower deactivates while I'm in the real world?" The figure just shrugged its shoulders and said, "I doubt there would be a problem but just make sure to hurry and come back so we won't have to find out."

Ulrich nodded his head and said, "then lets get started." The figure closed its eyes and Ulrich felt the tower begin vibrate as energy ran through it; few seconds later Ulrich began to feel his body change into mist. Once Ulrich makes the change to mist form the figure waved his hand and a computer screen appeared already logged onto the Internet.

The figure turned to Ulrich and Said, "now just dive into the screen and think of where you want and you'll travel there almost instantly, now go and see the truth of whether or not your friends miss you." Ulrich entered the screen and felt himself being transported towards the destination he sought first. Kadic. When Ulrich left the figure sighed and began scanning the area for any threats that might come to the tower.

**Real World**

Ulrich exited the Internet and appeared out of a lamppost in front of Kadic, he looked around and saw that it was going to be sunset soon. Phasing through walls Ulrich kept going until he found himself in Jeremy room, he looked down and saw that there were only Odd, Jeremy, and Aelita. Ulrich made sure to stay near the top so they wouldn't see him and was surprised when he heard Odd say, "She'll never admit to it but she's hurting badly."

Ulrich automatically assumed they were talking about Yumi but what he couldn't figure is whom else they were talking about. Ulrich began to listen more intently as the conversation continued speaking. "She needs Ulrich, she won't admit it but she misses him and she feels a terrible guilt because she thinks it was her relationship with William that drove him away." Ulrich couldn't believe what Jeremy had just said.

It was beginning to dawn on Ulrich for the first time in months that maybe his decision to exile himself to Lyoko was a wrong one, he was only now realizing how much of a hole he had put in his friends hearts. Leaving the room Ulrich entered an electrical socket in the hallway and headed towards Yumi house. Once again Ulrich exited the Internet through a lamppost but this time he was in front of Yumi house.

Ulrich went up to Yumi window and saw that no one was in the room, as Ulrich phased through the window and began to float towards the ceiling he heard the door open and saw that Yumi had entered the room. Ulrich couldn't get his heart to slow down as he saw the love of his life enter the room right before his eyes, but then he felt a wave sadness over take him when he saw Yumi face was red form crying.

Along while later Ulrich saw Yumi mother come in and try to comfort her daughter, after a few minutes of talking when Mrs. Ishiyama was about to leave Ulrich heard Yumi say "I just miss him so much." Ulrich now was more focused then ever as he lowered himself to the ground he heard Mrs. Ishiyama respond with a bit of sadness in her voice, "I know but don't worry I'm sure he will return soon." If anyone could have seen Ulrich face they would have seen nothing except the pure shock that had just came over him from what he heard, he was in so much shock that it wasn't until the door closed that he realized that Mrs. Ishiyama had left.

Ulrich followed her out and did something he thought he would never do, guiding himself towards Mrs. Ishiyama he entered her through her back and felt himself spread through out her system. When Ulrich was convinced he had total control he turned himself around and entered Yumi room. When Ulrich entered the room the sudden rush of memories both good and bad immediately overwhelmed him.

When Ulrich recovered he went over to Yumi bed and began to stroke her cheek, he now felt nothing but guilt and a sudden urge to set things right, while continuing to stroke her cheek he said, "I'm so sorry, I'll do everything I can to make things right I promise." Ulrich left and when he was outside Yumi door he exited Mrs. Ishiyama body and entered a nearby electrical socket and headed towards Lyoko.

Lyoko 

The mysterious figure was waiting patiently for Ulrich to return, he was quite surprised that Xana had not bothered him. The figure hoped that Ulrich would be swayed to help him defeat Xana once and for all. A minute later the screen popped up and a mist entered the tower, the figure waved his hand and the tower deactivated.

Ulrich immediately retook his human form and was standing looking at the ground with a determined face. The figure said "your answer?" Ulrich looked at the figure and said "I will do everything in my power to help you bring the threat of Xana to an end." The figure nodded and said "be ready in three days we will begin attacking sector five to gather information and eventually find the fragment." The figure began to leave when Ulrich said, "wait who are you."

A chuckle could be heard throughout the tower and then the booming voice said, "I thought that would have been obvious, I am Franz Hopper."

R&R

AN sorry this took so long but my free time had been a little thin, the next chap. shouldn't take as long.


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter will be two parts, the reason being I've made two version of this chapter one where Ulrich is discovered and one where he's not. I didn't know which one to vote so I've decided to let the reviewers decide. One week after the chapter is posted I'll count votes and put up the majority vote so definitely please R&R. thank you

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else this story borrows

**Lyoko**

Ulrich was cruising through the forest on his overbike at top speed; his current destination was the end of the sector. It had already been a month since Ulrich had joined forces with Franz Hopper and Ulrich was happy with the progress they had been making in the search for Aelita memory fragment.

Today Ulrich was keeping his fingers crossed that the program Hopper had just finished would be able to track down the memory fragment and give Ulrich a chance to recover it. After a few minutes Ulrich finally arrived at the edge of the sector, after dismounting from his overbike Ulrich walked to the edge and ran his right hand over his gauntlet and changed it into his computer.

Ulrich flipped the computer open and was about to type in the password to sector five when he opened a link to Hopper and said " are the firewalls up yet?" A few minutes later a voice said, "Yes their up and just to let you know I finished the other new program that I had been working on."

Ulrich smiled at this and said "so it's finally ready, this should make the mission even easier." A few weeks ago hopper had told Ulrich that besides the tracer program he was working on he was also developing a program to increase his power and make him stronger than ever. A thought entered Ulrich mind, 'if I ever run into Xana I'll have to thank him since Hopper was able to develop the two programs using information we acquired from sector five.'

Ulrich thought was interrupted when Hopper began to speak again, "just so you know to activate the program all you have to do is say battle mode activate, and then you'll transform into your new body." Ulrich absorbed all the information he was being given and then said, "will I have new powers?" Hopper responded, "no the battle mode doesn't give you new powers, but it does double your life points and increase the effectiveness of the powers you already have, you'll understand if you have to use the program."

Ulrich whistled and said, " Ok I'm summoning the transport." Ulrich entered the code "Scipio", and a white sphere bearing Xana symbol descended towards Ulrich, when it reached Ulrich the sphere spun around and an opening formed that swallowed Ulrich and began the short trip to sector five.

Sector Five 

Deep in the confines of sector five Xana waited impatiently. Over the past month that brats Ulrich has been coming into his sector and stealing large amounts of information, more than they have in any of their past incursions.

This was leading Xana to believe that his creator Franz Hopper has finally come out of hiding and has joined forces with the brat Ulrich. Despite these disturbing events Xana was not the least bit fazed, what neither Ulrich nor Hopper realized was that Xana had managed to breach their firewall defenses during the last encounter into sector five.

While Xana was tempted to show them just how utterly pointless their firewalls were Xana knows that patience is the better part of valor. So now Xana is waiting for that brat Ulrich to return, the trap was set all Xana needed to do now was spring it. A few minutes later Xana received a signal alerting him that the transporter was being summoned.

Xana immediately began running his program, the trap was sprung now it was time to set the trap for the next person on his list.

Real World 

Within the confines of Kadic academy the students were sleeping peacefully. It was still too early for anyone to really be up, but on the girls' floor of the school Aelita was tossing and turning. Aelita continued to toss and turn until she woke up screaming slightly.

Aelita sat their for a few minutes holding the covers to her chest panting heavily, after she managed to calm herself down she laid back down and tried to go back to sleep, but as she tried one thought kept going through her mind ' something bad is going to happen today I just know it.'

Sector five 

Ulrich knew something was wrong the minute he exited the transporter. Usually the transporter would leave after it dropped off its passengers, but this time it was still here. Ulrich contacted Hopper and said" Hopper is something wrong with the transporter it's still here."

Ulrich waited a few minutes before he heard Hopper respond, " Ulrich we have a serious problem, Xana has cut off all the ways leading in and out of sector five and to make matters even worse he has breached the firewalls and activated a tower."

Ulrich paled at this statement, it wasn't a big problem that he was stuck in sector five, it was a big problem that he was stuck in sector five with a tower activated. Ulrich began pacing and said, "is their anything you can do to get me out of here, the tower has to be deactivated before Xana does any damage in the real world."

Ulrich was doing his best to be patient but it was getting harder and harder for him to not just run off into sector five and try to find a way out, as Ulrich patience was about to wear off Hopper started saying, "I think I can get you out, you're going to need to access the computer terminal, but it could take a while from their, I'm going to do the best I can, in the mean time find the switch and stop the countdown."

Ulrich just shook his head and took off through the passage to his left using his super sprint; Ulrich knew in the back of his mind that something big was going to happen today.

Real world 

William had just turned off his alarm clock and climbed out of bed. Normally he was pretty restless during the night, but thanks to Emily late night visits he was finding himself sleeping more soundly.

William had just finished get dressed in his usual school clothes and was about to head out his door when the Xana mist exited a nearby electrical socket and possessed William, a minute later William eyes flashed the Xana symbol then changed back to normal. William left his dorm room and began to head towards Odd room.

William passed by other students in the hallway, saying hi to those who said hi to him, and when he was sure that everyone was either gone or still fast asleep he knocked on Odd door. A few minutes later Odd answered door rubbing his eye, William happily noticed that he still wearing his nightclothes that would definitely make his job easier.

When Odd finally managed to clear the sleep from his eyes and he saw whom it was he began slamming his door shut when William stopped the door and said with a sad face "can we talk please?" Odd thought about for a second before backing up and opening the door to let William in.

Once William was in Odd closed the door and walked past him towards his desk saying, "so what do you want that you came to me or have you forgotten that we aren't friends anymore?" William just smirked and said "well I need to get Aelita to Lyoko so Xana can get what he needs from her and I need to make sure she gets their alone."

Odd turned around trying to ask one of the fifty questions running through his mind when he saw William form a gold energy ball in his right hand and throw it at Odd. The ball hit Odd square in the chest and flying over his desk and crashing into the wall with a loud THUD. William looked at Odd prone figure and when he was satisfied that Odd was out cold he left and began to walk towards the front gate, once he was their he would wait for Yumi to show up and deal with her.

Sector five 

Ulrich was running out of time, he stabbed a creeper that had crawled from underneath the walkway he was on and tried to hit him in the back. Ulrich quickly glanced at his computer and saw that he only had thirty seconds left before the timer reached zero.

Looking down the walkway he was on Ulrich saw at least a dozen creepers in front of him, and as bad as this was there were even more on the ledges. Realizing that his time was almost up Ulrich thought about using his battle mode but then a thought ran through his mind 'if I use the battle mode now I'll have to wait a while before I can use it again and something tells me that I need to save it for later.'

Since using his battle mode was out of the question Ulrich did the only thing he could do, Ulrich activated his super sprint and ran as fast as he could down the walkway taking out any creeper who attempted to stop him. Within a few seconds Ulrich had reached the button and pressed it with only five seconds to spare. Ulrich deflected a few more laser blast before he quickly sprinted down the newly opened hallway.

Ulrich ran through the twisting corridors until he came to the ledge that the elevator ran past. Ulrich waited until he saw the elevator coming and when the time was right he jumped on it. When the elevator reached its destination Ulrich sprinted down the hallway, he knew he had to hurry before something bad happened.

Real World 

Yumi was running at full speed towards Kadic. Despite it being very early Yumi was hoping to join the others for breakfast. Yumi was in a fairly good mood but it came to a quick end when she saw the last person she ever wanted to see again, William. Yumi looked at him standing against the gate like he did when they were going out.

Yumi began to walk past him when he suddenly grabbed her arm and said, "can we talk?" Before Yumi could respond he added "please." Despite the voice in the back of Yumi head telling her to just keep going Yumi turned to William and said, "Fine what do you want to talk about?" William turned so he could face Yumi and said, "Not here lets go to our spot."

Yumi knew exactly where he was talking about, a little ways into the woods theirs a clearing where at night you can see the stars very clearly, it was also the place where William had first asked Yumi out and where they had shared their first kiss.

It was without a doubt the last place Yumi wanted to be right now, but some part of Yumi wanted to try and salvage their friendship so Yumi nodded her head and began to follow William in to the forest. After about fifteen minutes of uncomfortable silence the two found themselves in a small clearing with a couple of logs that were good for sitting on.

Yumi walked ahead of William rubbing her arms to calm herself, when she felt calm she was calm enough to ask a question Yumi turned when all of a sudden she felt Williams hand around her throat. With one hand William picked Yumi up and stood their smiling as she struggled against his iron grip trying to get free. After a few minutes of enjoying watching Yumi struggle William formed a gold energy ball in his hand and slammed it into Yumi chest.

Yumi tried to scream as pain coursed through her body but William kept a firm grip on her throat and her voice died inside of her throat, a minute later Yumi blacked out. William felt Yumi go limp and then he tossed her into the bushes like a piece of trash. With Yumi now taken care of William began to walk towards the factory, William was smiling insanely as he now had only one last person to take care and then Xana would enter this world.

Sector Five 

Ulrich ran his blade through the creeper in front of him, he was glad since it was the last one between him and the terminal. Ulrich quickly activated the console and transferred control to Hopper, "Hopper I'm transferring control to you."

Ulrich watched as dozens of new screens began to pop up displaying enormous amounts of information that Ulrich didn't understand. Ulrich looked around and saw a squad of mantas coming for him, Ulrich retreated in to the hallway when he heard Hopper start talking, "bad news, I can break through Xana barrier and get you out of here but its going to take time and I don't know how much time we have until Xana lures the others in and traps them as well."

Ulrich was cursing loudly in his mind, his attention was so focused on the news he had just been given that he didn't notice a creeper slowly stalking up behind him. Ulrich kept only thinking one thought in his mind 'what's going to happen next'

Elsewhere in Sector Five 

If Xana had a face he would be grinning from ear to ear, he knew that the brat Ulrich was trapped here in sector five and Xana had also just learned from William that the other brats Odd and Yumi have been dealt with as well. All Xana needed to do was set the final phase of his plan into action and victory would be his.

Real World 

Aelita and Jeremie were walking hand in hand towards the cafeteria, everything seemed perfect neither had a care in the world. Then suddenly the doors to the cafeteria slammed shut and electricity began to run itself through the entire building. Jeremy ran to the door to try and open it when he pushed back by the electric field. Inside the cafeteria Jim and Ms. Hertz were doing everything they could to try and calm the students when suddenly gas began to spill into the room.

Students who inhaled the gas immediately fell to the floor coughing and gagging, each student grabbing at their throats trying desperately to pry off the invisible hand that was choking them. Outside Jeremy and Aelita watched in horror as their fellow students and teachers were slowly succumbing to the poisonous gas that was slowly and painfully killing them.

The two took off and began to head to the factory, as they ran Jeremy sent a text message to Odd and Yumi phone telling them to meet him at the factory, he was happy when he got the reply back telling him to send Aelita in ahead and that they would meet her in Lyoko. Jeremy put his cell away as him and Aelita picked up their pace and ran even faster to the factory. William smiled as he threw Odd and Yumi cell phone on the ground, the final trap was set now he just needed to wait.

Sector Five 

The Creeper now in range of Ulrich opened fire and hit him square in the back with three simultaneous shots. Ulrich fell to the floor in excruciating pain as he felt the laser scorch his back. Ulrich tried desperately to crawl to his sword; he looked over his shoulder and was horrified to see the Creeper standing over him. The Creeper mouth glowed red then it opened fire at Ulrich.

R&R thank you.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else depicted in this story

Sector Five 

The Creeper fired what would be its final shot if it hit Ulrich, until Ulrich rolled to his left to avoid the blast. The Creeper began to fire again when Ulrich managed to pull himself forward and grab his sword. Ulrich turned around as the Creeper fired its shot; Ulrich deflected the shot back at the Creeper and hit it square in the chest, Ulrich then sprinted at the Creeper and ran it through with his sword.

As the Creeper exploded into pixels Ulrich collapsed onto the ground using his sword as a cane to hold him up. After a few deep breathes Ulrich contacted Hopper, "Hopper what's going on I feels like the laser is burning through my back." After Ulrich finally managed to stand without the need of his sword Hopper began to speak to him. "Xana has managed to cut you off from the scanners, as of right now you can die if you lose all your life points, so I caution you to be careful."

Ulrich silently nodded his head knowing that Hopper couldn't see it anyway, as Ulrich readied himself for whatever Xana would throw at him next he couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as something kept telling him in the back of his mind that something big was going to happen today.

Real World 

Jeremy and Aelita entered the factory, slid down the rope and successfully landed themselves in front of the elevator. The elevator began to descend. When the elevator stopped and the doors opened Jeremy exited the elevator and said, "head down to the scanner room and I'll get things started here."

Aelita nodded her head and closed the elevator doors to finish her descent to the scanner room. Jeremy hesitantly walked over to the control chair; this would be the first time since Ulrich disappeared that the team would be heading into Lyoko to battle Xana, Jeremy just hoped that they weren't rusty too many lives were hanging in the balance. Jeremy sat in the chair and felt a surprising sense of anticipation as the chair began its orbit around the holo display of Lyoko and stopped in front of the super calculator.

While Jeremy began to setup the program to send Aelita to Lyoko Aelita was also feeling the sense of anticipation as she entered the scanner and watched the door close with a hiss. The scanner began the transference sequence and when it was done Aelita was once again in Lyoko.

Lyoko 

Aelita began to materialize in the Forest sector, and when she finished her materialization she promptly fell on her but as she dropped from the sky. "Ouch" Aelita said as she stood up rubbing her but.

When Aelita got back to her feet the overwing had materialized right in front of her, as she boarded the craft she asked Jeremy, " which way to the first tower?" a few minutes later Jeremy responded " head south until you come to a cross road then take left you should see the tower eventually." Aelita nodded her head and began to head south.

Real World 

Jeremy began to tense up as he kept scanning ahead of Aelita for any monsters to show up. What Jeremy didn't realize was that the greatest danger to Aelita was not in Lyoko but was actually in the very same room as in him.

Standing on one of the steel beams high above Jeremy in the control room William stood waiting, he planned on waiting till after Aelita had deactivated the first tower, he knew he was safe since the tower that bound him to Xana was located in the mountain region so he was perfectly safe, but after the first tower was deactivated Jeremy wouldn't be safe and neither would Aelita.

Sector Five 

Ulrich and two of his clones stood in a triangle formation deflecting incoming blast from Mantas. Ulrich Jumped up and threw his sword downwards killing the Manta that was now under him. When Ulrich landed he heard one if clones scream and pixelize as a blast from a Manta hit him in the back of its head. Ulrich grabbed his sword and deflected several shots that were directed at him.

When he directed the last blast he heard Hopper say, "I got it, you can now escape sector five, please hurry Aelita is in Lyoko and she's just shutdown the first tower in the forest sector she's now on her way to the desert sector. Ulrich quickly summoned his overbike and took off after he got on it. With a group of Mantas hot on his tail Ulrich headed for the exit from sector five to the desert region, after a few minutes of weaving left and right Ulrich finally managed to enter the tunnel that would take him to the desert sector. After a quick two minute flight Ulrich found himself in the desert sector.

Ulrich began to immediately head for the tower but was caught off when a volley of laser blasts from several flights of Hornets cut him off. Ulrich once again began weaving left and right in order to avoid the oncoming laser blasts, he managed to get his sword out and took out a few of the annoying Hornets, but they still continue to harass him as their constant laser blast forced to such a low altitude that Ulrich overbike was now hovering but a few feet off the ground. Ulrich hit the turbo on his bike and now was moving at the fastest his bike could handle; the only problem was he was heading in the wrong direction.

Ulrich knew if he didn't turn around soon Aelita might make it to the tower before him and that put her and everything Hopper and him were trying to accomplish at risk. Ulrich was getting ready to make a sharp U-turn when an Alien sprung up from the desert below him. The Alien didn't try to hit Ulrich instead the Alien ran one of its claws across Ulrich bike leaving deep scars before the bike began to devirtualize and Ulrich was forced off. As Ulrich made a crash landing into the hot desert sand three more Alien appeared and surrounded Ulrich.

Ulrich readied his sword to battle the Alien terrors when the sand suddenly lashed out and wrapped itself around Ulrich legs and arms successfully pinning them and brining the mighty Warrior to his knees. Ulrich was trying everything he could to escape from the trap as the four Aliens circled like a pack of hungry predators circling their prey before the final strike, but as each second went by Ulrich knew he was running out of time and a scream in the distant made him realize he had to act now.

**Forest Sector**

Aelita had just successfully deactivated the tower in the forest, as she emerged from the tower something was bothering her in the back of her mind. During the entire trip to the tower Aelita hadn't encountered a single monster along the way and that worried her that they were lying in wait somewhere, but as much as this thought bothered Aelita she still had to get to the second tower and deactivate it or risk the lives of her friends if this one didn't stop the trap in the cafeteria.

Aelita boarded the overwing and began to head to the white tower to transport her to the Desert sector. "Aelita the Desert sector is clear so you shouldn't have anything to worry about but please be careful." Aelita took a deep breath and said, "I know Jeremy I will, and I love you." Aelita put the hammer down on the throttle and forced the overwing to go even faster.

Real World 

"I love you too," Jeremy said. Jeremy exhaled and began to turn his chair around while rubbing the bridge of his nose when all of a sudden he came face to face with William. William gave Jeremie a sick twisted smile before saying, "ah how cute too bad it's going to be the last time." Before Jeremy could do anything William grabbed his shirt and hurled him across the room and into the steel wall. Jeremy rolled on his side in pain as he began to spit up a bit of blood.

William laughed as he pointed his hand towards the super computer; purple lighting went from William hand and into the super computer. Jeremy tried to get up as heard William say, "master the brat Jeremy is being neutralized, and now is the time to spring the trap on Aelita." Jeremy tried desperately to get up and try to warn Aelita but as he made his way to the computer he felt his body become encased in the purple lighting. William was having the time of his life as he lifted Jeremy and threw him into the elevator door. Jeremy slammed into the steel elevator doors hard and as he did he managed to hit the button and call the elevator up.

William laughed as Jeremy crawled into the elevator, "Go ahead I'll give you a head start." Jeremy hit the button and felt the elevator rise as it began its return to the main level; he had to hope that the plan he had just developed would be enough to slow William down.

Lyoko 

Aelita had just cleared the white tower and was on her way to the final tower. Aelita couldn't shake the thought that something was wrong since for the past ten minutes she had been unable to get a hold of Jeremy since their last communication and she was very concerned. Aelita thoughts were interrupted when a swarm of Hornets suddenly opened fire on her. The overwing didn't stand a chance as it was hit with a dozen or so shots and instantly devirtualize allowing Aelita to fall to the ground.

When Aelita the Hornets began circling her from above, Aelita tried to run towards the tower but the Hornets began firing and cut her off. Aelita knew that they were trying to just hold her here until the Scipizoa can come to steal her memories. Utilizing one of her best defensive maneuvers Aelita dropped down to her knees and began to sing, the sand instantly began to rise until it formed a dome that encased and protected Aelita, but she knew this wouldn't hold long she had to think of something then an idea occurred to her, one she had never tried but she no choice. Aelita moved towards the edge the dome and once more dropped to her knees and began singing, stretching out her right hand towards the spot where she just was a small hole started to appear as the sand began to disappear.

Aelita stopped and jumped down the hole, once she landed she continued to sing and now stretched both her arms in the direction of the activated tower, a path instantly formed until Aelita was sure it reached just a few feet in front of the tower, before she proceeded Aelita waved her hand and the hole she dropped in disappeared. Aelita stopped singing and collapsed, this trick had taken a lot out of her but considering her options she didn't see much choice. When she felt her strength had recovered a bit Aelita took off down the newly tunnel as quickly as she could. High above Aelita dome the Hornets continued to circle, it didn't bother them that Aelita was sitting in her little dome soon the Scipizoa would arrive and then their would be no shield against its wrath, as if on cue the Scipizoa made its entrance just floating towards the dome.

When the Scipizoa reached the dome it waited a few seconds before its tentacles began to glow red then with one swing from its two tentacles the Scipizoa broke open the dome like an egg expecting to find a scared and cowering Aelita, instead all it found was an empty space. The Scipizoa didn't panic or get angry and try to destroy something, instead just as Xana created it to do so the Scipizoa sensed out Aelita presence. It took the Scipizoa just a few minutes to find her and it was surprised to find Aelita was almost at the activated tower. The Scipizoa began to us one of its latest acquired abilities, the Scipizoa began to devirtualize and with in a few seconds quickly disappeared.

Aelita had finally reached the end of her tunnel, once again she began to sing in a low voice and stretch her arm above her before she knew it a new hole opened up. Aelita jumped through the hole and was happy to see she was at the activated tower. Aelita ran to the tower and was about to go through when two blue lasers suddenly hit her in the back.

Aelita felt her body go completely numb as she fell to the ground unable to move, when she hit the ground she involuntarily rolled onto her back only to see the Scipizoa coming towards her, she did the only thing she could do in a situation like this. Aelita screamed in terror

Real World 

Jeremy never actually heard the scream but he knew something had happened to Aelita. Jeremy now had a black eye and several; bruises on his torso from this cat and mouse game that the Xana possessed William was playing. Jeremy had come up with a plan to immobilize William but it required a trip to the factory boiler room, now that he had what he needed he was waiting in the factory assembly line room all he needed to do was just be a little more patient. "Come on come on" Jeremy said like a mantra.

Unknown to Jeremy William materialized threw the wall behind him and said, "Okay here I am." Jeremy turned around and threw the bucket of water he had at William and successfully drenched him. William laughed and threw Jeremy at the conveyer belt and laughed as Jeremy grunted in pain from being slammed into the conveyer belt. As Jeremy began to crawl near one of the machines used on the assembly line William came over to him and said," did you really think a little water was going to stop me?" Jeremy gave one of his rare smirks and said, "nope but water with electricity will."

Before William could even show the shock in face Jeremy dumped his second bucket of water and grabbed two live electric cables he had pulled out and threw them in the water. The second the water touched William feet he felt his whole body jolt from the sudden sensation of electricity running through his body. William fell to his hands and knees, he was unable to do anything to stop the electricity that was immobilizing him, he tried to make a orb but he couldn't concentrate enough and the energy kept dissipating before he could use it. Jeremy pulled himself up and ran to the elevator, he only hoped it wasn't too late to help his girlfriend.

Lyoko 

Ulrich knew he was out of time, he knew it the second he heard Aelita scream, as the Aliens came closer Ulrich knew he would have to use the new system, "I just hope it works." Ulrich closed his eyes and yelled, "BATTLE MODE ACTIVATE." A wave of power rushed through Ulrich as his body began glow a bright orange color, the sand that had trapped Ulrich blew away and vaporized, the Aliens began to back away they were blinded by the orange light. When the light died Ulrich stood in the exact same spot, but his avatar was different.

Ulrich was now dressed in a complete orange samurai battle armor, on his back a banner was connected to his armor showing the head of the demon that was on the back of his regular clothes, sword was now double its length but still felt light and easy to handle. Ulrich felt pumping into his mind all the knowledge he needed to know how to work his new powers properly. Knowing he couldn't waste anytime with these pests Ulrich said in a new deeper voice, "triplicate times three." Suddenly there were now nine copies of Ulrich surrounding him.

Ulrich smiled behind his helmets mouth guard and said "take care of these pests, I got to go help Aelita" The clones all nodded then sprinted at high speeds and began fighting the aliens. Ulrich turned to face the tower; he then took off saying "mega sprint" Ulrich took off so fast he seemed to be a blur to those who watched him leave. Aelita knew it was the end, there was no one who could help her, and she was paralyzed, this was truly the end.

Aelita watched as the Scipizoa made its way over to her preparing to lose everything when all of a sudden an orange blur sped into view. The Scipizoa back away a little as the new Warrior appeared in front of Aelita, sword at the ready. The Scipizoa began to pump red energy into the tips of its tentacles and when they were filled it took a swing at the Warrior. The Warrior jumped and quickly slashed the tentacle and severed it off; the Warrior wasted no time in severing the other tentacle, as the Scipizoa began to retreat the Warrior launched himself at the Scipizoa.

Aelita watched in awe as in a matter of second the Scipizoa was covered with several deep glowing gashes one very close to its Xana symbol. The Warrior readied his sword to finish off the Scipizoa when the Hornets came rushing in firing at the Warrior and pushing him back. The Warrior prepared himself to deal with the new threat Aelita heard him say to her, "can you move?" Aelita began to move her arms a little bit and with in a minute was standing though a little wobbly. "Good now go deactivate the tower," said the Warrior.

Aelita ran into the tower and came back out within a few minutes but oddly the Warrior was gone and so were the Hornets. Aelita didn't stick around long to speculate instead she took off towards white tower and along the way was grateful to hear Jeremy voice. When Aelita reach the tower Jeremy transferred her back to real world.

Real World 

The minute Aelita returned to the real world Jeremy ran the return to the past program and watched as the white light engulfed them all. Now once again morning the gang was at their bench listening to Aelita tell them what happened in Lyoko, and when she was done they tried to speculate on who the mysterious Warrior was. "Well we can guess one thing it might be because of this Warrior that we have been able to enjoy the peace we have had the past seven months" said Jeremy.

Yumi who had been facing away from the group looked over her shoulder and said, "The only question is who designed this program and is it a friend or foe." As everyone began to contemplate this question they came to one unspoken conclusion, they would have to keep an eye on this new Warrior to see if he is a threat or a new ally. The gang began to let the topic slide and decided to go to the movies, as they all began the trek to the bus stop something was nagging in the back of Yumi mind, something that kept telling her that she was one step closer to finding her lost love.

Yumi chided herself, it had taken Ulrich disappearance to realize how much she actually loved him, and Yumi prayed every night that she would find Ulrich if only just to tell him ho much she loved him even if he didn't in return. It was this wish that kept Yumi going through each day and gave her hope for the future.

Lyoko 

Ulrich slowly limped his way towards the activated white tower in front of him, as he approached the tower it deactivated and Ulrich began to glow a bright orange and reverted back to his old appearance.

Ulrich entered the safety of the tower and promptly collapsed exhausted, as Ulrich lay their resting Hopper voice rang through the tower, "You better rest well in a few days we'll try again once the new firewalls are ready."

Ulrich just nodded as he fell into something resembling sleep, normally he never slept but the battle mode program had drained enormous amounts of his strength and now he needed to rest and come up with a new strategy for finding the memory fragment.

R&R

Thx


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else depicted in this story.

Chapter 6

**Lyoko**

Ulrich weaved left and right through the trees, he was in his battle mode and had spent the last week increasing his endurance so he could use the battle mode for longer extended periods of time. After a few more minutes of running Ulrich felt his arm begin to vibrate, he transformed his gauntlet and into a computer.

Ulrich opened the minicomputer and did a mini scan of the area, the map showed him that one of his friends was heading in his direction and they would be here any moment. Ulrich sighed; this was the third time in the two weeks since they discovered him that they were combing Lyoko he assumed looking for him. Ulrich saw that the person coming towards him was almost on him so he quickly jumped in to trees.

Ulrich waited a few minutes before he saw the love of his life show up on her overwing, Ulrich watched as Yumi slowly and carefully looked all over the area before he heard her say, " Jeremy no sign of him here either." Ulrich was able to hear everything Jeremy said when he responded, " Dang I was picking up strange readings in that area I thought it might be this new ally we seem to have, why don't we call it a day I'm bringing you back now."

Ulrich watch as Yumi sigh and then devirtualize. Ulrich waited a few minutes before he powered down and headed back to the tower he called home.

**Real World**

Yumi breathed heavily as she exited the scanner and made her way upstairs via the elevator. This was her third time scouring the vast world of Lyoko in search of this new 'ally', but all she had turned up was nothing. Yumi exited the elevator and saw Jeremy and Aelita cuddling in the control chair.

Despite the twinge Yumi felt in her heart any time she saw them or anyone for matter being all cuddly with their significant other she couldn't bring herself to ask them to stop. Yumi quickly left the room and began her journey back to the surface. Jeremie and Aelita couldn't have been any happier; here they were sitting together away from the prying eyes of others just simply enjoying each other company.

The two continued the cuddle with each other until Aelita bought up some bad news, "you know we have to go to class soon." Jeremie groaned and was about to say something when the screen in front of him began blinking rapidly. Using his free hand Jeremy opened the file he had just been sent, it was a message that read, "would like to arrange a meeting, meet me in the Ice sector at noon, please send reply back for coordinates of meeting."

Jeremy read the letter several times before he looked at Aelita who gave him a nod of approval. Jeremie sent back a reply with the single word 'yes' in it, a few seconds later another message came displaying a set of coordinates in the ice sector. Jeremy and Aelita both got up and headed out to go see Odd and Yumi knowing today was going to be a busy day.

**Lyoko**

Ulrich breath in deeply as he began his meditation, he was almost in the deepest part of it when an alarm went off alerting him to a tower being activated. Ulrich sprang up and headed out of the tower of the tower when the alarm suddenly stopped, Ulrich flipped open his computer and began scanning, the tower was indeed deactivated.

Ulrich was definitely confused, as he reentered the tower and began to resume his meditation when his computer began ringing again but this time it was a different ring. Ulrich flipped open his computer and found a message waiting for him, he opened the message, "dear hopeful friend, my name is Jeremie I would like to arrange a meeting between you and my friends who also have been fighting Xana, I would like to arrange a meeting between you and my friends, my hope is that we'll be able to coordinate a better resistance and be able to one day hopefully bring a end to Xana threat."

Ulrich traced the message back to its source, it the computer in Jeremy dorm. Ulrich reread the message, it sounded like something Jeremie would write when if was confronting someone he didn't know, yet something didn't feel right. Ulrich sent a response back telling Jeremie that he would meet with them. Ulrich sent back a reply back saying 'yes'.

A few minutes later another message came through instructing him to meet two of his associates at a set of coordinates in the ice sector at noon. Ulrich didn't like it something didn't feel right, he knew he would have to proceed very carefully when he went to the meeting in the Ice sector.

**Sector Five**

Xana had just set the stage now he just had to wait to start the play.

**Real World**

Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, and Yumi were in the factory and were getting ready to go to their meeting with their hopeful new ally. The trio began entering the scanners when they heard Jeremie say, "I'm sending you guys in a little ways away so if it's a trap you'll have a chance to get away. When Jeremie finished he began the virtualization sequence.

**Lyoko**

Ulrich had already exited the tower and was on his way to meeting his friends. Ulrich knew something felt wrong but he was too excited about the prospect of working with his friends again to bring down Xana once and for all. Ulrich was just upset that he couldn't use his overbike but that would arouse suspicion and he couldn't afford any mistakes, not when they were so close to finishing this war once and for all.

Ulrich entered the white tower and began his journey to the Ice sector. After a twenty-minute journey Ulrich arrived at the coordinates, it was the middle of nowhere, this concerned Ulrich a bit since he was quite a distance from the white tower and he couldn't get out of the sector if something went wrong. Ulrich waited for ten minutes before his computer began beeping to alert him that something was approaching him. Ulrich flipped open his computer and saw that his friends would be on him in a few minutes.

Ulrich closed his computer and activated his battle mode so his appearance would change. About the time Ulrich finished changing into his battle mode he saw Odd coming towards him on his overboard. Odd was approaching him carefully as if he wasn't sure if he was dealing with the right person. Odd approached Ulrich carefully as if he wasn't expecting him to be there. Odd lowered himself down to Ulrich and said, "Are you the person who's been helping us the last few months."

Ulrich nodded his head yes. Odd waited a few more minutes before he waved his arm forward and then Yumi and Aelita showed up on the overwing and the overbike. After a few minutes of waiting Jeremie began to speak to him, "Thank you for coming to meet with us friend." Ulrich was not in the mood to hear the long drawn out welcoming that Jeremie had planned so instead Ulrich cut n saying, "can we skip the long drawn out speech you have planned and get right down to business."

Odd and Yumi seemed to agree with that since they each said 'yes'. Ulrich sensing Jeremie disappointment decided to cut to the chase, "If you want to form an alliance with me then the answer is yes." There was a brief pause before Jeremie said, "that's great but wasn't it you who sent us an e-mail saying you wanted to meet us here at noon." Ulrich faces paled then he shouted, "run get out of the sector." Before any of them could take anymore then a couple steps the ground began to shake violently, the shaking began to get worse to the point where all they could do was hug the cold ice until it stopped.

After a few minutes of intense shaking the ice began to break apart into several icebergs, as the icebergs began to drift the group began to get reorganized. Aelita, Odd, and Yumi each boarded their respective vehicles, took off, and began circling the skies. A minute later Aelita said, "Yumi why don't you pick up our new friend and we'll get out of here before Xana pulls anything else." Yumi nodded her head and headed towards Ulrich, when she was about to land on his iceberg when suddenly an alien jumped out of the water and grabbed the bottom of her overwing.

Yumi had no time to react as the alien tail ripped through the bottom of the overwing and grazed her lightly causing her to lose only twenty life points. Yumi flipped backwards off the overwing and managed to land on an iceberg before the overwing devirtualize and the alien fell back into the virtual ocean. Odd began to go towards Yumi to pick her up when two alien webbings shot out of the water and attached themselves to his overboard, as Odd tried to get his overboard to rise a third alien slowly made his way up a nearby iceberg, when the alien seemed to reach its desired altitude the alien sprang off the iceberg toward Odd.

Odd was oblivious to the incoming danger as he continued to try and shake his board free, the alien was almost at Odd when Ulrich super jumped from one iceberg to another and in the process successfully cut the web holding Odd overboard, as Odd overboard shot upwards the alien went underneath it just narrowly missing Odd. When the alien was in Odd sight he shouted, "laser arrow" and riddled the head of the alien with arrows from both arms until he hit the Xana symbol and destroyed it. As Odd went over to help Aelita who was weaving left and right to avoid the laser blast that were coming at her Yumi found herself being confronted by an alien that had crawled up her iceberg. Yumi drew both her fans and assumed her combat stance, the alien snarled then fired a laser blast, Yumi deflected the blast with her left fan then spun around and threw the fan in her right hand, as the fan neared its target the alien used its tail to knock the fan away from it.

While the fan made its way back to Yumi the alien fired a volley of blast that impacted harmlessly against her fan, as the fan returned to Yumi right hand she quickly threw the one in her left hand, the fan this time managed to sheer the top part of the alien head off. Ulrich was super jumping from iceberg to iceberg slowly making his way towards Yumi, each time though he stopped on the next iceberg another alien would spring from the water to try and stop him, Ulrich made sure to deal with them quickly.

After a few more minutes of island hopping Ulrich finally made it to Yumi, as Ulrich approached Yumi he felt his pulse quicken at how close they were. Pushing back the nervousness in his voice Ulrich said, "come on lets get out of here" Ulrich and Yumi both turned around and headed towards land while Aelita and Odd also made their way on their vehicles. When group finally crossed back onto the solid land they prepared to take off when suddenly Odd was hit in the back by a laser blast and devirtualize.

Aelita, Yumi, and Ulrich looked around and saw a group of five tarantulas coming their way. Yumi drew her fans and assisted Ulrich in deflecting blasts as they began to retreat, everything was going fine until several shots nailed Yumi in the chest and caused life points to reach zero. As Yumi body devirtualize Ulrich swore and said, "triplicate times three", as Ulrich clones appeared they began to charge forward in a suicide all or nothing attack, as the Ulrich clones began their charge the real Ulrich turned to Aelita and said, "time to go."

Aelita looked behind Ulrich and watched as two clones were eliminated before a third finally reached the tarantula. Aelita not wanting to waste any more time pushed the overbike into over drive and sped towards the white tower, Ulrich mega sprinted and easily caught up with Aelita as they headed towards their destination. When they arrived at the tower Ulrich looked back and when he saw that there were no tarantulas behind them he turned to Aelita and said, "quickly get into the tower and get back to the real world, I'll meet with you again later."

Aelita knew she should get in but there were too many questions she needed answered now, "wait a minute, I need some answers, for starters who created you, and who gave you those powers?" Ulrich couldn't believe she was doing this now, he knew this would happen eventually but he was hoping by then he would have reasonable answers by then. Ulrich turned to Aelita in frustration and shouted, "We don't have time for twenty questions, just get your nut in the tower and get back to earth." Before Ulrich could continue he gauntlet began to vibrate alerting him that one or more of the tarantulas was coming his way.

Ulrich drew his weapon and shouted, "GET TO EARTH NOW" he turned towards the direction of the incoming tarantula but was sent into a state of utter shock as a laser blast hit him in the chest and sent him skidding across the ground, as Ulrich lay their on the ground he began to feel a sense of dread as his body began to break apart telling him that he was devitalizing and for the first time in more than half a year he was returning to the real world, he didn't envision this reunion going well at all.

**Real World**

Odd and Yumi were both waiting patiently in the scanner room for Aelita to come back from their latest excursion, they were panting slightly and were slightly hunched over. When the doors of the scanner opened they expected to see Aelita, instead they saw the last person they would ever expect to see fall out of the scanner.

Despite it being so long since the last time neither Odd and Yumi saw him they would ever forget him. Odd was in shock and Yumi felt mixed emotions of shock, happiness, and anger as the person fell forward and hit the floor. The scanner door opened and Aelita stepped out, she was surprised to see Odd and Yumi just standing their, as Aelita came up behind them she was about to ask them what was up but the words became stuck in her mouth as she saw what they were staring at.

Their lying in the scanner room floor was the boy that had been missing for the last eight months; on the floor was Ulrich stern.

R&R thx you


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else depicted in this story

Real World

Ulrich slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring at a ceiling that looked familiar but he couldn't remember from where. When Ulrich had finally managed to sit up he looked around the room and the first thing he noticed were three gold cylinder chambers, the scanners.

Ulrich brain was now putting everything together, the reason the ceiling looked so familiar was because he would always look at it to avoid being caught when he staring at Yumi, the place he was in was the factory. Ulrich knew that his friends would be angry with him for what he has done, but to be honest he couldn't blame them since he himself has only realized recently how seriously he hurt everyone by leaving.

Ulrich swung his legs over the side of makeshift bed and attempted to try and stand up but as soon as he was almost up he became dizzy and fell back down to the bed. As Ulrich sat there his head cradled in his hands his mind was running rampant as he tried to prepare himself for the screaming he was going to be getting from the others when they saw him.

Ulrich continued to sit there with his hands in his head until a voice jarred him from his thoughts, "hey stranger its been a while hasn't it?" Ulrich looked up and saw Odd coming out of the elevator but he was surprised to see him with a smile on his face. Odd approached Ulrich and extended his hand to help him to his feet; Ulrich gladly took his hand and managed to get back to his feet.

When Ulrich got to his feet Odd said, "Are you ok now, can you stand up ok?" Ulrich nodded his head yes and Odd muttered good before he slugged Ulrich lightly in the cheek, as Ulrich fell back on to his makeshift bed holding his cheek.

Despite the fact his cheek was in a little bit of pain and he had a very strong urge to scream at Odd and slug him back Ulrich kept his emotions in check as his brain was telling him to let Odd have it back, but he knew that no matter how much he wanted to hurt Odd it was nothing compared to the pain he's already caused Odd and everyone else.

Ulrich this time got back to his feet on his own but his head remain down as he found his feet very interesting. Odd who for a split second had a look of anger on his face said, "Come on the others are upstairs waiting." Ulrich nodded and followed Odd into the elevator, as the elevator began its ascent Odd happen to glance over at Ulrich and saw his face, it was a look he got when he was severely depressed and he felt bad.

Odd let out a sigh of relief, as he was glad that Ulrich was at least feeling bad with what he had done, Odd put a hand on Ulrich shoulder hoping to comfort him as the elevator doors opened. Ulrich and Odd stepped through the elevator doors and into the super computer room, immediately the others that were in the room turned towards Ulrich still held his head down and was expecting any minute to be mugged and yelled at, instead he felt a wave of surprise as everyone pulled him into a group hug.

After a few minutes Jeremy said, "So you want to tell us why you decided to go live in Lyoko." Ulrich nodded his head and began to tell his story, about how he felt the war was going badly, how everyday he was slipping farther and farther into depression, how he felt that their lives were being put on permanent hold, and how he decided that the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the one and therefore he felt that him sacrificing himself so the rest of them could live normal lives was the right thing.

After Ulrich was done every one stood there taking everything they just heard, when they first found out that Ulrich was in Lyoko they were all angry, Odd remembers thinking Ulrich was a coward running away from everything, but now Odd was beginning to see the sacrifice that Ulrich made, for a long time now Ulrich has been fighting the war with Xana with no hope of winning he hoped instead to do the next best thing, keep Xana contained.

After everyone was done processing the information they all gave Ulrich glances that showed they understood and were happy just to have him back, one by one the girls each went up and hugged him and the guys patted Ulrich on the shoulder. After everyone was done showing Ulrich that they were grateful that he was back they began talking about more serious issues. "So what are you going to do now reenroll back into Kadic academy?" Ulrich shook his head no and said, "can't, I've got to remain in Lyoko and continue to keep Xana at bay until we get what he took from Aelita and sever their link."

When everyone gave Ulrich a weird look he went into detail about his encounter with Hopper, everything he learned, and about the development of the tracking program, which Ulrich and Hopper had yet to try out due to constant interference from Xana. Jeremie began rubbing his chin as he assumed his thinking stance, after a few minutes of thinking he said, " Ok Ulrich I understand that you have to remain out of sight until this is all over, but then what are you going to do were going to be facing the same problem then."

Ulrich smiled and said, "that won't be a problem because once Xana is defeated we can use the 'return to the past program' with out fear of making Xana stronger, we'll set it to return to the day I left."

Everyone nodded his or her head at this, it seemed Ulrich has really thought this plan out. Before any more questions could be asked Ulrich quickly said, "you guys should go home and get some rest, tomorrow and going to have to show you guys how to use your battle mode and then your going to have to do a lot of extensive training to be able to use it for extended periods of time and not get completely drained by it."

Odd, Aelita, and Jeremy nodded their heads yes and were on their way out when Odd turned and saw that Yumi was still just standing their, he was beginning to turn to talk to her when she said, "Don't worry Odd I'm going to stay here for a while, I'll see you guys later."

Odd nodded his head and entered the elevator.

Now for the first time since Ulrich had returned he was alone with Yumi, for a while the two just stood their looking at each other until Ulrich began to say, "look Yumi I want to apologize about leaving, I'm sor…" Ulrich couldn't finish his sentence as Yumi tackled, wrapped her arms around his neck and began to sob lightly into his shoulder as she held him tightly.

Ulrich tried to say something but Yumi shook her no and said, "please don't say anything just hold me." Ulrich smiled and wrapped his arms around Yumi and held her tight. They both just stood their holding each other not saying a word until Ulrich finally managed to say his sentence, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused you and I will do everything I can to make things right."

Yumi was listened to everything he said when she remembered something very important, what she told Ulrich gravestone the last time she visited it. Yumi looked at Ulrich and simply and plainly, "I love you, I always have and I'm sorry I didn't tell you before this like I should've."

Ulrich just stood their holding the woman he loved since the first time he met her, the woman who despite all that he put her through had just told him that she loved him and all he was doing was standing their like a complete moron. Summoning all the courage he could Ulrich began to say, "I..I...lov.." Ulrich was mentally slapping himself, he couldn't believe that he couldn't summon just an ounce of courage to tell Yumi how much he loved her, as Ulrich began to realize how difficult it is to tell the person you love face-to-face that you love them he began to admire Yumi courage to tell him straight to his face that she loved him.

Ulrich knowing that he was having no luck of expressing his love to Yumi in words decided to try the alternate way, bringing his lips to hers Ulrich gave Yumi a gentle sweet kiss. The two sat their lip locked for what seemed like an eternity until they broke the kiss and Yumi rested her head against Ulrich shoulder.

The two stood their rocking back and forth to an unheard melody listening to each other steady breathing feeling the steady of their hearts, as they were doing this Yumi wanted to stay their with Ulrich all night, to listen to his stories about his adventures in Lyoko, tell him about everything that's been going on since he's been gone. Suddenly an idea came to Yumi mind, giving Ulrich a quick kiss she then backed away and held up her index finger silently telling Ulrich to wait a minute. Ulrich watched as Yumi disappeared to the other side of the super computer room, he had no idea what she was up to all he knew was that she had gotten her cell phone out and was making a call.

Ulrich had been walking around in circle for about ten minutes, when he turned around to face Yumi he was caught off guard as she once again flung herself at Ulrich wrapping her arms around his, but this time she brought her lips to Ulrich for another kiss.

When they were done making out and Ulrich had caught his breath he asked Yumi, "So whom did you call?"

Yumi made a big smile and said, "I asked my parents if it was okay that I stay at Aelita for a slumber party, but before that I called Aelita and she agreed to cover for me, so my question to you is would you like some company tonight?"

Ulrich smiled as he took Yumi hand and led her to the elevator, as the elevator began its descent Ulrich couldn't help but think about tomorrow and how he would have to return to Lyoko and get ready to help the others train their new powers, but that was tomorrow, as for tonight it was just him and Yumi and he was going to make every second of it count.

The elevator doors opened with a hiss and Yumi was smiling brightly for the first time in a long time as she led Ulrich by the arm over to his makeshift bed where they intended to make the most out if this night and forget about all the troubles of the world outside the factory.

R&R tell me what you think


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else depicted in this story

AN: this chp is dedicated to Princess-RainbowRose who had a lot of good questions when I first published this story, I hope this answers them all for you thx you

Training World 

"Ok guys get ready for the warm up exercises," Jeremie said. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi were currently were standing in the middle of plain blue room that reminded them of the room the teleporter dropped them off into when they went to sector five. They all approached the center pf the room and readied their weapons, a few seconds' later four blocks and five Hornets materialized into the room.

The blocks began opening fire with their lasers while the Hornets spread their green poison in various parts of the room in an attempt to limit their movements. Ulrich began super sprinting towards the nearest block and began to form a triangle around it, as Ulrich continued to run around the block at super speed the block began rotating itself in a attempt to track Ulrich, the block stopped rotating and fired a laser shot taking out one of Ulrich clones. While the block continued to try and track a second block approached them.

The block locked on to Ulrich second clone and fired a second shot, as the clone devirtualized the gold triangle that surrounded the block disappeared then all of a sudden a loud "hyah" was heard and one of Yumi fans was flying towards the block. The second block saw this and began powering up its laser in an attempt to shoot down the fan, but the block never got the chance as Ulrich dropped from the ceiling and rammed his sword into the blocks Xana mark and destroyed it. The fan continued to sail towards the block unhindered, the fan easily made a slash directly across the Xana sign and began to head back to Yumi waiting hand.

Yumi and Ulrich spread out and began to take on the other two remaining blocks while was firing laser arrows at that last three remaining Hornets, the Hornets broke off in two different directions after Odd had managed to destroy the middle one. The Hornets were circling around Odd spreading poison and before Odd knew it he was standing in the center of a lake of green poison, the Hornets now came at Odd from both sides of him, Odd looked around and saw that Yumi and Ulrich were finishing off the blocks and were unable to help him, as the Hornets continued to close in Odd decided to try out a new trick, he crouched down, stretched his arms out in both directions towards the Hornets and activated his shield, as the Hornets laser blast hammered his shields Odd did his best to keep from buckling while moving his arms to follow the Hornets flight path.

When the Hornets had finally passed him Odd stretched both his arms out and said, "laser arrows" the arrows flew towards their respective targets and entered through their soft underbellies and exited through the Xana marks on their skulls. Odd exhaled and smiled, he looked up and saw that Yumi and Ulrich had finished off the blocks and were walking towards him with smiles on their faces.

When the three of them got together in the center of the room Jeremie began to speak to them, " great job everybody, now before we call it a day lets do some work with your battle modes, Ulrich since you've already mastered your battle mode why don't you log out and come up to the super computer room, I still have some questions about what you did to the super computer." Ulrich gave a slight chuckle before he looked at Yumi who nodded her head. Ulrich ran his hand over his gauntlet transforming it into his portable computer, after typing a few buttons Ulrich devirtualized.

After Ulrich left Yumi looked at Odd and said, " so how are we going to decide who goes first?' Odd put his ginger to his chin and then said, " rock, paper, or scissor, or who has the better reason for wanting to get out of here first", Yumi noticed that as Odd said the last art he had a big smile on his face causing her to blush a little. Before Odd could get a chance to notice Yumi said, " rock, paper, scissor it is."

Real World 

While Yumi and Odd began deciding who would go first Ulrich had just ridden the elevator to the super computer room and was walking towards Jeremy when he turned to face Ulrich, as Ulrich approached Jeremy he asked, " have they started yet?" Jeremy gave a slight chuckle and said, " nope they're still deciding." Ulrich laughed and stood next to Jeremy chair watching the screen waiting for one of them to start.

After a minute of silence of silence Jeremy said, " hey Ulrich do you mind if I ask you a few questions while we're waiting?" Ulrich thought about it for a few seconds then said, " sure as long as it's not personal." Jeremy nodded his head and said, " its just two questions I've had on my mind since you've come back, first one is what did you do when we entered Lyoko, where did you go?"

Ulrich began to stare at the screen as he said, " I just went and hid in a tower and waited till you guys left, and since I had a link to the super computer I was able to watch your guys a status and I just waited till you left." Jeremy thought about it, simple question, and simple answer. " Then my last question is how were able to hide your card active status?"

Ulrich was now laughing hysterically, when he calmed down he said, " the same way a person hides their active status in general, I went in to my card and change it so that it would tell the person checking it that I wasn't on line." Jeremy laughed; it was so simple no wonder he didn't think about it. " Hey Jeremy I'm ready to start." Said Yumi. Jeremy nodded his head and typed a few buttons.

Training Room 

Down in the training room Yumi was waiting, then a dozen Aliens materialized around the room, Yumi breathed calmly before she shouted "battle mode", Yumi body became engulfed in blue light, when the light died down Yumi was standing their wearing a long flowing blue kimono with a red belt around her waist that carried ten fans, her foot wear was still the same black heel shoes as well as her face and hair remained the same.

The Aliens began to hiss at Yumi and a few of them began to climb up the wall. Yumi calmly grabbed all ten of her fans and tossed them all to the side, the fans all became encased in a pink aura and stopped, the fans all opened and began to circle Yumi who was also encased in a pink aura. The Aliens began opening at Yumi and her fans responded by moving around Yumi and successfully blocked every laser blast.

Despite the constant laser barrage coming at her Yumi stood their calmly waiting for an opening, a few more minutes of laser barrages and she finally had it, the second that all the Aliens stopped firing Yumi launched all ten of her fans and successfully amputated ten of the Aliens heads straight across their Xana symbols and straight into the walls. The remaining two Aliens opened fire at the now defenseless Yumi who calmly began doing back flips at amazing speed.

When Yumi reached the back wall she once again became encased in a pink aura, she pointed her arms towards the two Aliens who were also encased in a pink aura and began to levitate off the wall, Yumi smirked before she clapped her hands together, the Aliens flew at each other at amazing speeds before they slammed into each other and exploded into pixels. Yumi smiled and became engulfed in a blue light and when it faded Yumi was back in her original form. When the change was complete Yumi turned to Odd and waved goodbye before Jeremy devirtualized her. Odd smiled as he stepped into the middle of the room said said, " Ok Einstein reset the program and let me take a crack at it."

Real World 

Yumi was breathing heavily as she exited the scanner; to her surprise Aelita was standing their smiling her arm outstretched holding a bottle of water. Yumi gratefully took the water took the water and followed Aelita in to the elevator, as the elevator began to rise Aelita looked at Yumi who had just finished chugging, after putting on what would be considered by most a evil smile Aelita said, " so out of curiosity what did you need me to cover you for last month, were you and Ulrich having a bit if fun?"

Yumi started to blush as certain thoughts entered her mind. When she managed to regain he composure she said, " yes I did ask you to cover for me so I could spend time with Ulrich, but no we did not sleep together we spent a lot of time making out and catching up on things."

Aelita figured as much but that didn't mean she couldn't have some fun at Yumi expense. When the elevator stopped the two disembarked and made their way towards Ulrich and Jeremy. When Yumi got to Ulrich she became even happier when Ulrich wrapped his arm around her shoulder, Aelita went and sat in Jeremy lap.

" So has Odd started yet?" asked Yumi. Jeremy shook his head no and said, " He'll be starting in a second." Down in the training room the Aliens surrounded Odd the same way they did Yumi. Odd took his deep breath and shouted, "Battle mode" and just like Yumi Odd became engulfed in light the only difference being was his was purple.

When the light had faded Odd was standing in the same spot wearing a form fitting purple armor, on both his wrist were blue launchers for his arrows each one carrying a thousand arrows, on his back was also a blue jet pack that could be used for short burst of flight, he also had on a black helmet that covered half his face. Odd locked on to two Aliens and quickly fired two arrows at their Xana symbols destroying both instantly.

The Aliens responded by opening fire with their lasers and web. Odd began weaving left and right and when he could get a lock fired his now homing arrows, after about five minutes of this Odd had reduced the number of Aliens by half. The Aliens now began to cut off Odd movements until they had managed to trap Odd in the middle of the room, as the Aliens began to open fire all at once Odd just stood their and smirked as the laser hit him, as the laser neared Odd a purple shield began to form around him in the shape of a dome, the laser merely hit the shield and were absorbed into nothingness.

The Aliens just stood their firing laser after laser in a vain attempt that they might actually bring his shield down, but Odd knew from testing it that it would take the firepower of a Megatank to knockout his shield as long he didn't expand it too much.

While the Aliens continued to pound away at his shield Odd began targeting the rest of the Aliens one by one, when Odd had successfully locked onto them all he quickly lowered his shield and shouted, "laser arrow" six arrows flew out of his launchers and found their mark in the Xana symbols of the remaining Aliens. After the Aliens were done exploding into pixels Odd powered down and said, " Ok Einstein get me out of here." A minute later Odd devirtualized.

Real World 

After Odd left the scanner he headed up to the supercomputer room and was surprised to only find Jeremy and Ulrich there, "Hey where are the others?" he said. Ulrich turned to him and said, "they went to get pizza and soda were having a mini party."

Odd just nodded his head and smiled; in the past month that Ulrich had been back odd noticed that Ulrich was happier than he had ever seen him, and Yumi was once again smiling and picking on him whenever she got the chance. Odd was happy to see that for the first time in long time they were both completely happy. The girls returned a little while later with two pepperoni pies and three bottles of coke.

For the next few hours all that could be heard was sound of laughter from a group of kids who were happy to be reunite after so long of being apart. After all the pizza and soda was digested and their was nothing more to talk about Odd, Jeremy, and Aelita said their good-byes and left leaving Ulrich and Yumi alone to enjoy some quality time together.

After it had gotten a bit late Yumi looked up at Ulrich, she kissed him on his face near his ear and said, " Would you like some company tonight again?" Ulrich smiled and shook his head yes, he got up and pulled Yumi up and led her to the elevator to go downstairs where they once again left the troubles of the world behind them.

The next day Odd, Jeremy, and Aelita met them at the factory, after a round of teasing about what they were doing last night Jeremy jumped into his chair and said, " so you guys ready to put an end to Xana once and for all." They all smiled and ran to the scanners with the hope that this would be their final mission.

AN: R&R tell me what you guys think


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else depicted in this story

Lyoko 

After the virtualization process was complete Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi found themselves in the forest sector near the edge of it. After a minute of orienting themselves they began to head to the edge of the sector to hop onto the transporter to sector five. After a minute of waiting they were for the first time happy to be going to sector five. When the transporter arrived they happily jumped into it.

Real world 

Aelita was pacing around the factory while Jeremie was monitoring the others progress. The silence between them was broken when Aelita said, " I should be with them?" Jeremie stopped typing and towards her and said, " you know that if you went their attention would be divided between getting the fragment and keeping you safe, the mission could end in failure or worse."

Even though this was the seventh time that Jeremy had told her this Aelita still had trouble accepting that she had to remain behind, even if it was for the safety of the world. "They've just entered sector five." Aelita ran over to the super computer and stood beside Jeremy chair so she could watch their progress.

**Sector Five**

Everyone exited the transporter and began to get prepared, a second later the wall opened up to reveal the way to the key. Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi were speeding down the corridor as fast as they could until they came to a large open room. The three scanned the room quickly and located the key, on the ceiling. "How the heck are we supposed to get it all the way up there?"

Everyone was looking around the room when Ulrich said "leave it to me." As soon as Ulrich finished this statement the three began to dodge the incoming laser blast from the creepers as they began to crawl out of hallways like cockroaches.

Yumi immediately threw her two fans at the nearest creepers and destroyed them while Odd was firing laser arrows at any creepers that he could get a clear shot at. While this was going on Ulrich super sprinting ledge to ledge as he slowly made his way towards the ceiling, as Ulrich jumped onto the final ledge he was forced to lean backwards as he came face to face with a creeper laser blast, after the laser blast had cleared him Ulrich drew his sword and decapitated the creeper.

Ulrich sheathed his sword and sprinted towards the edge of the platform, when he reached the edge he jumped towards the wall, when Ulrich reached the wall he quickly grabbed two small stones. After propping his feet on the wall Ulrich began to super sprint up it, as Ulrich felt himself reach his limit he quickly jumped off the wall towards the button, Ulrich super sprint gave out just as he hit the button.

As Ulrich headed towards the ground the bottom floor began to descend downwards in the form of a spiral staircase. When Ulrich landed back on the floor the three looked at each other before nodding their heads and making their way down the staircase into the depths of sector five.

Real World 

Jeremy and Aelita watched helplessly as the others made their way into sector five. They were about to enter a large room when a screen popped up indicating an activated tower. Jeremy grabbed his hair and was tempted to yank it all out, ' damn you Xana why did you have to do something now when were so close to getting rid of you once and for all.'

While Jeremy was mentally yelling at Xana Aelita was getting ready to go in, as she made was about to get on the elevator Aelita heard Jeremy say, " Aelita you can't go into Lyoko, if you do theirs too much a risk of Xana getting his hands on you." Aelita knew he was right, but with the others in sector five there was very little in the way of options, but then an idea came to her. "Have Yumi and Odd meet me in the sector of the tower, after were done they can go back and help Ulrich if he isn't done already."

Jeremy was weighing the options in his mind when Ulrich voice came over the speaker, "Jeremy do it I can finish the mission no sweat." Jeremy wanted to argue so much with them, but he knew it was a loosing argument and nodded to Aelita letting her know it was okay for her to get in the elevator. Before Aelita went into the elevator she ran up to Jeremy, wrap her arms around his neck, and gave him a passionate kiss, as Jeremy wrapped his arms around Aelita back he felt all the arguments in his head go away, all he was doing was concentrating on this moment, her touch, her skin, the feel of her lips against his, he was doing everything thing he could to memorize everything about her in the quick few seconds they had.

After a minute of the kiss Aelita unwrapped her arms from around Jeremy neck and stepped back, she looked into his eyes and said, "I love you" when she finished her statement she turned around and ran to the waiting elevator and began her descent down the elevator to the scanners. Jeremy began typing multiple keys as he began running a new program that could only be used once, it was a program that could transport any number of people from one sector to another instantly with out any problem.

The only reason this program could be used once was because once it was used Xana would put up barriers to stop it. After Jeremy readied his program he told the others he would be activating it and that they were going to be sent to the mountain region.

Sector Five 

Yumi and Odd were getting ready to leave when Ulrich walked up and to her surprise and joy gave her a kiss on the lips. Yumi wrapped her arms around Ulrich neck as he slipped his tongue into her mouth and she began to fall into the ecstasy of his kiss. A minute later Ulrich pulled away and whispered into her ear, "don't worry about me just go help Aelita and go do something nice."

Yumi smiled, she knew Ulrich has been wanting to take her out and do something even as simple as walking around the mall, but they knew it would have to wait until they returned to the past to the day he left. As Yumi stood beside Odd they heard Jeremy say, "Running program now."

Ulrich watched as his girlfriend and best friend became bathed in a light then just as quickly as the light appeared it disappeared taking the two with it. Ulrich turned his attention to the room before him, it was open, with a giant pyramid like structure with a small ball like object on it, he didn't see anything that could be a threat but that didn't mean he could be careless.

However it was a long walk down the narrow walkway anything could happen between here and there. Ulrich began to jog down the walkway his right hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Ulrich was about halfway down the walkway when his instincts told him something was behind him, quickly spinning around like a top as he drew his sword and decapitated the creeper that had came up behind him.

Ulrich watched as from underneath the walkway several more creepers slithered their way up the sides of the walkway and now stood menacingly facing Ulrich each one staring menacingly at Ulrich each one readying their lasers. Ulrich quickly super sprinted towards the creepers weaving left and right as best he could given the narrow space, as Ulrich passed each creeper he made sure to sever their heads or in a couple cases just simply shoved them off the walkway to their doom.

Ulrich continued to speed past the remaining creepers until they were all behind him, it was then that the walkway began to collapse. Ulrich super sprinted over the gap, as he landed the piece he was on began to collapse a well. Ulrich sprinted as fast as he could before the section collapsed; Ulrich continued to run at full speed until he was almost to the temple when the last section of walkway collapsed. Ulrich jumped at full speed and landed on the base of the temple.

Ulrich felt he was safe and began to get to his feet when the temple collapsed.

Mountain Sector 

Aelita was waiting patiently when all of a sudden two white lights appeared and when they disappeared Yumi and Odd were standing in its place. The three exchanged quick greetings then took off in search of the activated tower.

The three quickly found the activated tower but three tarantulas were guarding it along five mantas. The three were currently leaning against a mountain while they discussed their options. "So how are we gonna do this?" asked Odd. Yumi and Aelita thought about their options then Yumi suggested, "You take on the mantas on your overboard and I'll take on tarantulas."

Aelita and Odd looked at Yumi as if she grew two heads but then relaxed when they saw how serious she was. "Yo Einstein can you send me my overboard" Odd said. When the overboard finished materializing in front of him Odd jumped on it and took off towards the mantas. Yumi drew both of he fans and ran down the rock walkway and into one of the many square areas that the Mountain sector was known for, Yumi waited by the exit of the square until she heard what she'd been waiting for, up in the air Odd was now engaging the mantas and had managed to take out two already.

Yumi watched from her spot as the tarantulas began firing at Odd, as they turned their backs to her in order to keep Odd in their sights, Yumi used this opportunity to throw one of her fans and successfully hit the Xana mark on the middle tarantula. The remaining two tarantulas turned heir attention back towards Yumi who after throwing her fan dashed out and began to charge them. Yumi threw her remaining fan then the other one as it came back to her hand.

The first fan hit the tarantula right between its eyes and sliced off its head, the second tarantula had more time and was able to deflect the fan with a barrage of lasers. As Yumi caught her first fan she watched as her second one became embedded n the rock wall, she could call for it using her telepathy but that would leave her defenseless and she couldn't afford to make a mistake, so she decided that she just have to be patient and wait for the right opportunity.

Odd was doing everything he could to defeat the remaining mantas, he had managed to take down a third leaving only two, nut since then all he's been doing is dodging and blocking lasers with his shield. A manta came at Odd firing its laser, Odd flew upwards and was about to blast it as it came under him when he felt a pain in his arm as the other manta laser made contact. Odd flew a little way away from the mantas to reevaluate the situation, the manta were working in synch with each other and they were nimble enough to avoid his attacks easily, as the mantas came towards Odd readying their next attack. Odd fired his laser arrows but the mantas easily dodged them, if Odd thought things were bad enough as is they got worse when he ran out of arrows.

Odd watched as the mantas split up one going high the other going low, the manta above Odd began firing. Odd put up his shield and managed to block the attacks from above, but as the manta below him opened fire Odd could do nothing except fall as his overboard took hits and devirtualized, as Odd fell he saw that he was not going to fall on land the into the digital void.

Aelita could only silently scream as she watched Odd overboard devirtualize and he fell towards the digital void. Aelita knowing she had to do something Aelita came out from her hiding spot and went to the ledge to where she could get a good view of Odd, falling to her knees Aelita began to sing a sweet melody Odd heard Aelita voice and noticed that below him a solid ledge was forming.

Despite his happiness for not falling into the void Odd was not happy when he slammed onto the ledge and felt himself lose some life points. Not caring how much he had Odd decided to pull out all the stops and activated his battle mode. Purple light engulfed Odd and when it left Odd was standing on the ledge in full battle mode, Odd took in a quick breath then activated his jet pack and rejoined the fight.

Aelita felt a sigh of relief as she watched Odd rise but the relief was short lived when she turned around and saw the scipizoa coming towards her. Aelita ran towards the others but was stopped when the scipizoa fired its blue stun ray, as Aelita fell to the ground she screamed, "Yumi help me!"

Yumi was backing away from the tarantula when she heard Aelita scream; because Yumi lost her concentration and fell backwards as tripped over her own two feet, as Yumi fell the tarantula fired a shot that Yumi successfully blocked the laser as she hit the ground, as Yumi looked up she saw the tarantula prepare to fire both of its laser to finish her off.

But before the tarantula could fire its lasers Odd fired two laser arrows and hit the tarantula square in its Xana mark, as the tarantula exploded into pixels Yumi waved to Odd who gave her a salute as he flew towards the mantas. Yumi turned towards the scipizoa and threw her fan, the made its way towards the scipizoa and severed its tentacles, but Yumi wasn't finished their using her telepathic abilities Yumi directed her fan still stuck in the wall towards the scipizoa who was flailing since Yumi had severed its tentacles.

The fan flew towards the scipizoa at high speeds and then successfully managed to slice the Xana mark and destroy it. Up in the skies above them Odd was using his shields to block both attacks the manta were throwing at him, as one of the manta flew by him Odd got above it, fired an arrow at its Xana mark and destroyed it.

With only one manta left Odd decided to try out a new attack he had, he quickly locked onto the last manta Xana symbol and said, "homing laser arrow." The arrow that Odd launched made its way towards the manta that simply moved to the left to evade it, but the manta was completely caught off guard as the arrow came back around and hit the Xana mark on its back.

Odd began his descent back to the ground near Yumi who was standing outside the tower. When Odd feet touch the ground he powered down his battle mode, when the he was done Aelita was just emerging from the tower. "Well now that this is done should we go help Ulrich or should we head home?" asked Aelita.

They were thinking for a second then Jeremy cut in and said, "You guys should head back, we need to get Aelita out before Xana can reconstruct his scipizoa and send it back out." Everyone nodded his or her heads and headed towards the white tower to get Aelita out.

Sector Five 

Ulrich began to panic as the temple fell to pieces, he was falling quickly but he managed to land on a solid enough piece to where he could use his super sprint and begin going up towards the memory.

Ulrich managed to get a little ways before he realized that he was loosing ground fast. Ulrich knowing that he was running out of time activated his battle mode and began using his mega sprint to go up. Ulrich was almost there when he realized he was almost out of ledges to use, he was approaching the final ledge when he saw that he was just at the fragment.

After making his final jump Ulrich landed on the platform and saw right in front of him a small green sphere, as he approached the sphere he saw various memories of a young Aelita and an old man he assumed was Franz Hopper. Ulrich activated his portable computer, after pressing a few keys his hand began to glow orange, Ulrich then ran his glowing hand over the sphere, after that he looked at his computer, which was running a virus scan.

After a couple minutes the scan came back clean and Ulrich had confirmed that he had the real fragment. Ulrich grabbed the sphere and held it in the palm of his hand; he then put the sphere on top of his computer and watched as the sphere was absorbed.

When it was done Ulrich was smiling, in his mind all he kept thinking was that 'this is it the war is coming to a close.' Ulrich typed a few buttons and felt himself devirtualize, as Xana watched Ulrich leave the only thing he was thinking was, 'its now time to play my last card.

R&R tell me what you guys think


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own code Lyoko or anything else depicted in this story

Real World 

Ulrich had just finished the de-virtualization process and was exiting the scanner when Yumi tackled him and hugged him. Ulrich looked down at her when he felt tears on his chest, he thought he had done something wrong but when he saw her face he knew right away that they were tears of joy. The others had just exited the elevator and were heading towards Ulrich to congratulate him, after all the congratulations done Jeremy got everyone attention and said, "well shall we finish the last step." Aelita smiled and walked over to the open scanner and entered it, Jeremy ran upstairs and began typing the necessary keys to run the download. Inside the scanner Aelita began to fell like she was going to Lyoko but then she felt a rush as memories came to her, she saw many things, her parents, Mr. Puck, the men in suits, these were just some of the images and their were so many that Aelita felt as if she would pass out, and then it was over.

When the doors opened everyone was standing there holding his or her breaths, as Aelita stepped out of the scanner she fell and Jeremy rushed towards just in time to catch her. It was a few minutes before Aelita opened her eyes and said, "I know who I am and where I came from." Everyone smiled, after Jeremy helped Aelita to her feet they all headed towards the elevator and headed towards the super computer room. When they got to the floor they got off and were heading towards the super computer but before they could get to it a white light came towards them and engulfed them, they began to fell the familiar sensation of the world around them rewinding, when the light faded they were all back at the start of the day. After they all quickly reoriented themselves they all met back at the factory in the super computer room, Aelita pulled the switch but nothing happened. Now they were all in the main computer room doing a diagnostic on the super computer, when it was done they saw what the problem was. "Xana shorted out the switch, it's useless until we repair it" said Jeremy.

Everyone was thinking about what to do when Ulrich said, "how long will it take to repair?" Jeremy shook his head and said," too long, and we can't use the return to the past program since the one Xana just did drain the power reserves we'll have to wait for either the reserves to build up or a tower to activate. Everyone sighed, Yumi asked the question that no one wanted to know, "how long will it take?' Jeremy ran a few quick calculations and said, "Since we only need to go back a day it should only take a few hours, I've already begun the recharging cycle." Everyone sighed with relief, then felt the urge slam themselves anime style into the ground as Odd said, "all this is making me hungry lets eat."

After the urge to pummel Odd passed everyone began to leave, Yumi walked to Ulrich and gave him a kiss and said, "I'll go get you some breakfast." After everyone left Ulrich went and sat down in Jeremy chair and began to rub his temples, he knew that in a few hours everything would be all over. Xana would be gone and Ulrich would make his mysterious comeback, everyone had been trying to come up with a good excuse but so far nothing had hit them yet. While Ulrich was lost in his thoughts the screen in front of him began to beep. Ulrich looked up and saw a message from Franz Hopper appear on the screen, the message read, '_Events moving fast and although the end is within our reach I suggest we go along with our plan and take the last necessary steps to ensure things go okay, do you agree?' _Ulrich thought for a few minutes then he hit the keys that spelled out the word yes.

Back at Kadic academy Yumi was just leaving the cafeteria with two ham sandwiches and a can of soda, as she began her walk through the forest she couldn't help but grin at all that's happen in the last few weeks, first Ulrich coming back and both him and her confessed their love for each other and how wonderful the past month has been and she was looking forward to seeing it end. Yumi was brought out of her thoughts when she heard someone screaming at the top of their lungs. Yumi looked up and she spotted three girls she didn't know running towards her. Suddenly Yumi eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as a crab came scuttling out behind where the girls were. The crab looked towards Yumi and began to power it laser, Yumi dived to her right and into the bushes. The crab moved slowly towards the bushes as it attempted to flush Yumi out.

The crab fired off a laser shot into the bushes then Yumi burst forth at her top speed and made her way towards the sewer cover knowing if she could get there she'd be safe. Yumi made it safely and was already running through the sewers knowing she would be safe until she got to the exit in front of the factory; her only fear was that the crab might beat her to the factory. Suddenly Yumi was jarred from her thoughts when a laser shot whizzed pass her. Yumi turned around and was shocked to see a crab behind her standing in the water, the crab fired off another laser and Yumi ducked into a side passage. Yumi began to look around for something she could use as a weapon and luckily found a broken piece of pipe, as she picked up the pipe the crab moved in behind Yumi and prepared to fire.

Yumi threw the pipe at the crab hoping to throw off its aim, but was taken by surprise when the pipe passed through the crab and disrupted it showing it to be a polymorph. While the crab was reforming itself Yumi took the opportunity and ran past it and didn't stop until she reached the exit. Yumi climbed up the ladder and onto the bridge and was relieved to see nothing there. Yumi entered the factory, swung down the chain rope, and made her way to the elevator to head down to the super computer room. When Yumi exited she saw that the others were already there and quickly told them what happened. Jeremy began to rub his head as the super computer just finished its scan of Lyoko, it showed him a nightmare as within each sector of Lyoko a tower was active and under the control of Xana. The Lyoko warriors were trying to think of what their next move should be when a message appeared on the screen In front of Jeremy. "Lyoko warriors, give me the key or I will launch my next wave, you have 30 minutes." No one knew what to do, they all just stood there until Ulrich said, and "We have no choice we must go to Lyoko and shutdown the towers."

Jeremy shook his head and said, "That's not possible, each tower is protected by at least fifty monsters or more, there is no way you'll be able to fight your way through them." Everyone felt hope leave them. Aelita was getting ready to tell them she was giving herself up when a screen opened and a voice began talking to them. "I have been listening to your conversation as well as analyzing the situation on Lyoko and I can assure you that Jeremy is right" said Franz Hopper. Everyone wondered why he had bothered coming if all he was going to do was tell them the situation is hopeless. Franz Hopper continued to speak, "Instead of trying to muscle your way through to the towers I have a different idea."

Suddenly an image of the celestial dome appeared, the image zoomed to its southern region and showed an access port that none had noticed before. "This entry point leads towards a chamber called the heart of Lyoko, there you will destroy Lyoko heart and Lyoko along with it." Everyone gasped and Aelita ran towards the screen sating, "No father you can't, if you do we'll never be able to get you out of there!" Everyone heard Franz sigh, and then he said, "I know sweetie, but if we don't all will be lost for when Xana realizes that we'll never give him the key, he'll lay waste to everything." Suddenly a screen appeared and it displayed two pictures of armored knights, the one on the left carrying a sword, and the other carried a bow and arrow. Everyone stared curiously at the pictures when Franz continued to speak, "Over the years I have been slowly building my own army in preparation for the war that I knew would come."

Jeremy looked at his screen and said, "How will they be used?"

"I will deploy most of my army on Lyoko in order to protect towers that I will activate, the activated towers will be used to one send the rest of my army to the real world to help in its defense, and two to empower one of you with the ability to have your powers in the real world." Before anyone could even breathe Ulrich jumped forward and said, "I'll do it." Yumi started to protest but Ulrich pulled her into a hug, the warmth of Ulrich body soothed Yumi worries and calmed her mind in a way that only he could, the one she truly gave her heart to. Yumi returned the hug and then the two holding hands turned towards the super computer screen.

"Ulrich I will activate a tower and send the energy to you, once it enters your body you will be transformed into your battle mode. But I must warn you, the stress on your body will be greater then ever, and at any moment your powers could fail." Ulrich nodded his head and turned towards Yumi. The two exchanged no words; he cupped her cheeks with his and gently caressed them with his thumbs. The two stared at each other for a second feeling each other breathe on their faces before Ulrich closed the gap and kissed Yumi on the lips. The two stayed locked in their passionate embrace for a few minutes before lack of oxygen forced them to break their kiss. They hugged one more time before Ulrich stepped away and said, "Do it."

Jeremy screen began blinking as it showed one tower in each region excluding sector five. Suddenly white mist came out of the computer and seeped into Ulrich. Ulrich began to glow with a bright orange light, when the light faded Ulrich was standing there in his battle mode gear. Ulrich felt a rush of power like nothing he ever imagined, after the feeling passed Ulrich said goodbye to everyone, then he boarded the elevator, and rode it up to the main floor.

Ulrich exited the factor and saw on the other side of the bridge were twenty of Franz archers along with thirty knights. While Ulrich was approaching them one of the knights stepped forward and said, " The creator has instructed us to follow your commands, what are your orders?" Ulrich nodded to them and said, " Spread out, search the streets in groups and guide everyone you find to Kadic academy." Ulrich's new troops bow their heads, and then they turned around and marched into the city. Ulrich watched them go before he bowed his head and said a quiet prayer, when he was done he mega sprinted into the city that had now become a war zone.

Lyoko 

In all four sectors Xana divided his forces and directed them towards the towers Hopper had activated. Xana wasn't sure yet why Hopper needed so many towers active, but he wasn't going to just wait and find out. Xana armies began their marches to the towers and arrived at each unopposed, as they were preparing to begin their attack suddenly they came under attack from blue arrows. Suddenly dozens of armored knight appeared directly in front of Xana army, each brandishing a long two-handed sword, they dived into Xana unsuspecting army and easily decimated their unsuspecting foes. Krankerlots were skewered, Tarantula were impaled at their throats, Cubes were sliced in half, and Crabs had their legs dismembered leaving them easy prey.

Up in the sky Mantas attempted to swoop in and stop the slaughter, but a group of archers appeared, these were carrying bow with blue arrows ready to fire. The archers released the arrows and let them sail through the air towards the Mantas. The Mantas attempted to evade the incoming attack, but the arrows were too numerous and in the end nearly all of the Mantas were destroyed forcing the survivors too retreat. Without any hope of support from the air Xana knew his monsters on the ground would eventually be destroyed, so Xana ordered them too pull back, he knew this move would make him look like a coward, but with his invasion of the real world going on right now he would have to save power anyway possible. While Xana monsters were retreating Franz knights and archers took the opportunity to reform their ranks and waited for Xana next wave.

**Real World**

Jeremy had watched the battle unfold on the holo-screen. When it had ended Jeremy turned towards the others and said, "It's time, head to the scanners." Everyone nodded their heads and took the elevator down to the scanners, as the three entered the scanners and began to virtualization process Jeremy noticed that while Yumi was going at normal speed, Odd and Aelita were very far behind. Jeremy ran scan after scan but couldn't determine anything wrong.

After the virtualization was complete Jeremy ran a quick diagnostic, but found no problems so he ignored it, but the scan did reveal something that had changed to Aelita Lyoko avatar. "Aelita I have some news, apparently getting your memories back have unlocked and attack called energy sphere, " said Jeremy.

Lyoko 

Aelita was excited at the news, but they had no time to waste. The three made their way over to the edge of the sector and were happy to see the transport coming right towards them. The transport scooped them up and began its brief journey to sector five.

Real World 

Ulrich and his troops had been fighting for nearly an hour, during that time they had manage to clear roughly seven streets and were almost done with their current street when Xana monster began to counter attack. Krankerlots began to move down the street using their power shots to try and break the knights defenses while behind them Tarantulas lay down a stream of fire that caught several of the knight and destroyed them. Ulrich mega sprinted ahead of everyone using both katana' to deflect the blast harmlessly to the side.

When there was a brief pause in the volley Ulrich shouted, "Archers fire!" the archers each pulled back the strings of their bows and a blue arrow appeared in each one, the archers let the strings go and the arrows soared over Ulrich finding their marks in several of the Krankerlots and Tarantulas. While the remaining monsters began to pull back Ulrich troops charged after them with Ulrich using mega sprint along with his katanas to make sure any monster he caught up to didn't last long. When the monsters were completely driven from the street Ulrich turned to his troops and said, "Quickly clear everyone out." The knight and archers nodded their heads then quickly did as they were told. Within ten minutes the block was cleared as people were scrambling into the streets to get clear while Ulrich and his army made their way to the next street.

Sector Five 

The three Lyoko warriors had exited the transport a short while ago and were now trying to activate the key. After a minute of running the three had finally come to the room with the key, the room was one they hadn't seen yet. It was a simple straightaway with them at one and the key at the other, they all silently agreed, this was too easy. The three began to move down the hallway with Odd in front, Yumi in the rear, and Aelita sandwiched between the two. They were about halfway to their goal when suddenly Creepers appeared along the walls.

The Creepers wasted no time and began to fire on the three. Odd and Yumi positioned themselves between Aelita and began to block as many shots as they could while they attempted to fight back, but despite their best attempts they each took a few hits. Aelita quickly called to her powers and made a dome for them. Odd and Yumi were breathing heavily, they'd taken more hits then they could afford, Yumi who had been hunched over straightened herself up and said, "Odd were gonna have to use our battle modes." Odd nodded his agreement, the two assumed their positions and shouted, "Battle mode!" They waited for a second but nothing happened, no light, no great boost of power, nothing they were there in the normal forms still. Yumi contacted Jeremy and asked, "Jeremy what's going on, we can't change to our Battle modes?" In the real world Jeremy pressed a few keys before saying, "I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think the problem is that Franz has diverted all his power to Ulrich and the troops he's given him, so he doesn't have any power to divert to the towers to activate the Battle modes." Yumi and Odd both swore under their breaths.

The two looked at each other and nodded their heads, they then turned to Aelita and said, "Bring down the dome then make a run for it, Odd and I will take care of the Creepers." Aelita nodded, she tapped into her powers and connected with the dome. Aelita looked at Yumi, she nodded her head, Aelita then looked at Odd, he nodded his head. Aelita dropped the dome and made a straight sprint for the key. Odd and Yumi sprung out towards the creepers and began attack them with everything they had. Odd was weaving left and right as he launched laser arrows from both his arm s taking out several Creepers before he activated his shield to block the Creepers attacks. Yumi was having a more trouble then Odd, after her first dual throw from her fans took out two Creepers she'd been on the defensive blocking the volley of laser that came at her. Finally deciding she had to take the offensive, Yumi charged forward and ducked under a small ledge. Yumi put her hands to the side of her head and began to glow with a pink aura, suddenly a column began to glow pink, using her right hand Yumi made a sweeping motion and the column ripped from its position, and slammed into a Creeper.

Yumi made another sweeping motion and the column swept across destroying the rest of the Creepers. By the Aelita had reached the key, there was only a couple seconds left on the timer as Odd wrapped up the last Creeper on his end. The wall near Aelita opened and as one the three proceeded down it towards the outside of the celestial dome. When they reached outside they found Jeremy had already materialized their vehicles for them, after mounting them Jeremy said, "Okay head south to the southern pole, you should see some kind of entrance."

They all nodded their heads and took off. While they were making their way to their destination Aelita asked, "Jeremy how are the battles going?" Jeremy clicked a few buttons and responded, "Franz forces just repelled a fifth wave in all sectors, their holing but I estimate their numbers are at almost half of what they were initially in each sector." Everyone was quiet; they knew Franz force wouldn't survive indefinitely, but they were loosing so many too quickly. They reached the southern pole and gone through the entrance.

Real World 

Ulrich screamed "Impact" and ran his blade through the neck of a Tarantula; the blade exited other side through its Xana mark. The Tarantula exploded and Ulrich took a few steps forward before screamed in pain as a laser blast hit his back. Ulrich fell to the ground his back smoking a little from the laser blast; Ulrich rolled over on to his back and saw an Alien coming towards him. Ulrich tried to move but his body wouldn't respond, the Alien closed in on Ulrich and prepared to fire when one of the knights suddenly drove its sword through the Aliens Xana mark and the Alien blew up.

The knight turned to Ulrich and gave him a hand up; Ulrich gratefully took it. When he got to his feet the two began heading down the street when the knight suddenly stumbled forward and exploded. Ulrich turned around and saw a Tarantula, suddenly out of the street lamps a dozen more shadows came out and formed a line. The Tarantulas as one began firing their lasers Ulrich raised his sword and began to block the shots, but he was quickly overpowered, Ulrich felt several blast hit him as he turned around and said, "Mega sprint" Ulrich began to take off at super speed, but got no more then a few steps before his sprint suddenly stopped, 'oh no have I already begun to lose my powers?' Ulrich thought as he rounded a corner. Suddenly he began to feel very weak, he looked down at his hands and saw they were becoming transparent that he could see his real hands underneath.

Ulrich began to panic then it stopped and his hands returned to normal. Ulrich had no time to think he as peered out around the corner. The Tarantula was almost to the corner. The rounded the corner and quickly fired two laser blasts, the ground was black with scorch marks. The Tarantula was confused, it saw Ulrich round the corner just a second ago. The Tarantula looked down the street but still couldn't find Ulrich; suddenly the Tarantula felt a pebble hit its head. The Tarantula looked up in time to see Ulrich descending towards it, Ulrich made a striking motion and pierced the Tarantula Xana mark, and the Tarantula exploded. Ulrich took two steps forward before his swords slipped from his hands and he collapsed to the ground, as Ulrich lay there on ground motionless his body once again began to become transparent and his true self could be seen.

Lyoko 

In the forest sector an army of Mega tanks and Tarantulas marched forward as they pushed the few survivors of Franz army back to their final line. The once proud force was now reduced to just a few knights and a couple archers; the survivors were now grouped in front of the tower waiting for the last push. The Mega tanks formed a crescent formation before the rolling split open and unleashed their attacks. Knights charged forward and attempted to block the attacks, but the Mega tanks attack proved too much, their swords shattered into thousands of shards before the attack continued and destroyed the Knights themselves. Archers attempted to launch their arrows, but Tarantulas had now moved up and opened fire on the Archers and destroyed the last of Franz defenders in the forest sector.

From with in the super computer room Jeremy watched on his screen as Franz tower in the forest sector shutdown. Jeremy lowered his head and sighed, but as he began to watch the screen again his breathing stopped as the tower in the mountain sector went off line. Jeremy began to breath when it became a necessary; this was bad, with two towers offline he knew that some of Ulrich troops here in the real world would be gone and Ulrich powers reduced. Jeremy turned towards a screen that showed a digital image of Ulrich with a gold bar on the side, the bar was telling Jeremy that Ulrich had lost nearly seventy percent of his power and the number was continuing to go down. Suddenly Aelita voice could be heard as said, "Jeremy were here, begin the next step." Jeremy immediately began typing the necessary button to run the program Franz named 'Drill' after only a few seconds Jeremy hit enter and watched the program begin to run. In the chamber the gang was looking around for anything when suddenly in front of the heart a tank with two large drills attached to it appeared.

Odd was about to say something but decided not to as the drills began to spin and the tank moved forward. The drill made contact with the first shield and Jeremy said, "It'll take about five minutes to crack the shields, so everyone just sit tight and wait." Everyone nodded and spread out and formed a triangle around the drill. A minute went by and nothing happened. Two minutes went by with nothing happening, everyone began to get tense. The timer was almost at the three-minute mark when suddenly several Mantas appeared. Yumi, Aelita, and Odd began using their weapon and easily cut the Mantas numbers in half. Creepers began pouring into the room now as well and the three found themselves fighting a swarm of monsters.

Real World 

Ulrich was still lying on the ground unconscious when monsters began to close in on him.

Lyoko 

The timer had just passed four minutes when an attack from a Manta caught Yumi in the back and devirtualized her. Odd began running around the chamber like a madman firing his without aiming and still scoring numerous kills till a shot from a creeper caused him to fall and then several more shots finished him off. Now it was just Aelita all alone in the chamber.

Real World 

Monsters moved past Ulrich lifeless body without as much as a second thought. Ulrich eyes fluttered open and he was regaining his vision to the point where he saw a blur of Xana monsters marching down the street past him. Suddenly they stopped and turned to face Ulrich. The monsters parted and a black knight emerged. The knight approached Ulrich who now saw on his chest the Xana mark showing proudly. The knight stood over Ulrich and held his arm off to the side, suddenly a giant sword appeared.

The knight raised his sword above his head and said, "I decided that the first thing I would do here in the real world is kill you personally, the one who has caused me the most trouble. But don't worry I'll send your precious Yumi to you next." Ulrich knew this was Xana, but despite this he also knew that he had reached his limits, their was nothing he could do but lay there as Xana swung his sword towards him.

Lyoko 

Aelita screamed as Odd devirtualized; she knew she was alone. The drill had just penetrated the last shield and was preparing to finish the job. Aelita smiled; although the cost would be high for her they were about to win all Jeremy had to do was devirtualize her and that would be it. Suddenly the Scipizoa appeared, it quickly wrapped its tentacles around Aelita and began to extract the key to save Xana. But as suddenly the Scipizoa stopped and released Aelita who felt herself devirtualize. The Scipizoa began to flail around until it exploded. The drill pierced Lyoko heart and there was a great explosion.

Real World 

In the super computer room Jeremy heard Franz shout, "NOW!" Jeremy hit the enter key and launched the farthest return to the past they had ever launched. Ulrich awoke with a start; he sat straight up breathing heavily. When he realized he was in his room he relaxed considering Xana sword had started to cut him when Xana and his army vanished. Ulrich went over to his calendar and saw what the date was, today was the day when he found out about Yumi and William, and when he made the decision to fight the war against Xana alone. Ulrich sat down on his bed and called Jeremy who was also up despite it being six a.m. Ulrich ask Jeremy if he had checked on Lyoko yet, after a few minutes Jeremy said, "It's completely gone, no trace of it, we did it we won." Ulrich told Jeremy thank you and hung up, he then dialed Yumi phone and was glad that she was awake.

Ulrich told Yumi the news and she was ecstatic, the two talked for a while before Ulrich said he was going back to bed, as Ulrich laid down and settled into his mattress he smiled for the first time in a long time. Yumi told him she would be breaking up with William later today and next week Ulrich and her would start dating. Ulrich let out a happy sigh he knew the others would want to know what happened to the Scipizoa, why it suddenly self destructed, and didn't it take the key from Aelita. Ulrich already knew what he would tell them, one word 'insurance.' But that was later today, for now Ulrich would for the first time in a very long time sleep peacefully and dream of the new chapter in his life that was just starting, one where he was finally with the love of his life and Xana was gone for good.

R&R

AN: I'm sorry for taking so long to post the last ch for this story, I've had a bad case of writer block for this ch and ended up rewriting it. Well as promised there will be a sequel. But I'm not sure if it will be one big one shot or three individual ones shots. I'd appreciate anyone opinion and until next time take care.


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